Three’s company
What will happen if plane carrying Olmert, Livni, and Barak to Annapolis crashes?
Saturday night, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will depart to Washington to attend the Annapolis Conference. Extraordinarily, he will be joined by his deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and by his Defense Minister, Ehud Barak. The airplane’s business class will be very crowded this time around when it comes to titles, aspirations, and ego.
As a veteran of the section behind the business class curtain designated for security guards and journalists, I can tell you about the regular question that comes up in the minutes before takeoff. The question is: What would happen if the plane crashes?
The terminated career of the important figures at the front of the plane would make screaming headlines, while us, the journalists, who view ourselves with a great measure of self-importance, will appear somewhere at the bottom of the story under the tiny headline: “…were also killed…”
The prime minister’s, foreign minister’s, and defense minister’s willingness to share a joint conference, not to mention a one airplane, is a truly rare event; almost historic. If I recall correctly, it last happened when Prime Minister Ehud Barak took his Foreign Minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, along with him to the 2000 Camp David talks. As Barak also served as defense minister at the time, we can say that all three were onboard.
In most countries it is customary that when a president or prime minister conducts diplomatic talks, at home or abroad, the foreign minister takes part as an active participant. After all, that’s the foreign minister’s job. But Israelis know better.
Ever since the time when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion used to abuse his Foreign Minister, Moshe Sharett, Israeli governments have adopted a separation of forces model. When the American secretary of state arrives here, she meets separately with the prime minister, foreign minister, and defense minister. And not only her; any foreign leader who arrives here holds his contacts vis-à-vis two, three, or four top figures, while discovering that they believe him more than they believe each other. He maneuvers among them, compares their positions, and often departs confused and embarrassed.
Good news, bad news
Ehud Olmert did not decide to appoint Tzipi Livni as the head of the negotiation team happily, and he did not invite Barak to join the trip happily. He was forced to learn that he does not have sufficient power and public support to manage contacts with the Palestinians on his own. He will need to share the stage, consult, restrain himself, and take some blows.
This is a good lesson for the other two travelers to Annapolis. They will have to learn that running a country is not always a zero-sum game: When Olmert gets screwed, they are not necessarily on the side that gains.
The way the Annapolis meeting is shaping up at this time, it is doubtful whether it justifies the participation of such a senior group of Israeli ministers. After all, we are talking about a series of speeches; a net total of three hours.
Olmert, Livni, and Barak can join forces to constitute what is known as a “kitchen cabinet” in Israel’s political lingo. Yet the kitchen cabinet has not yet been formed, and it is doubtful whether they trust each other enough to establish it.
Now back to the discussion among the passengers in the back of the plane. If the plane crashes, this will be both bad news and good news. The bad news is that Vice Premier Haim Ramon will become our prime minister. He is next in line behind Tzipi Livni. The good news is that we, the journalists at the back of the plane, won’t be there to cover it.
