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Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

ISRAEL NEEDS A NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT/Update

If Ehud Olmert's fumbling performance during the second Lebanon War is reminiscent of Levi Eshkol's fumbling performance before the Six Day War, the tough spot Israel finds itself following this war is reminiscent of the one she found itself before that war. The wolves on her doorsteps have been emboldened. Iran warns Israel to fear missiles Syrian president announces that Hezbollah won and that the Golan Heights will be liberated by Syrian soldiers and that the US plan for the ME has collapsed.

Then, Menachem Begin placed the good of Israel above personal and ideological considerations and appealed to RAFI, David Ben Gurion's party, to take back the running of the state under the guise of a national unity government. The elderly Ben Gurion gave the job to his proteges, Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres and Eshkol's own party forced him to accept the change. Yesterday, following in Menachem Begin's footsteps, former Laborite, Kadima leader and Knesset speaker, Dalia Itzik, broke rank with Olmert and made the same appeal to Benjamin Netanyahu. The Jerusalem Post reports:

Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik (Kadima) called for a national unity government to be formed with the Likud. Itzik raised the issue in a secret meeting with Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu at a Jerusalem hotel on Sunday night. She told Netanyahu she was not acting on behalf of the prime minister.
Olmert's associates said he was not happy with her invitation to Netanyahu, because it made the prime minister look desperate at a time when there was no danger to his coalition. They said the possibility of expanding the government had not even been discussed while the prime minister was busy with the war and the issue would not be raised until next week at the earliest.
A spokesman for Itzik said she had initiated the meeting because she believed the war in Lebanon would restart shortly and that national unity was needed to confront the war. In a speech to the Knesset, Itzik tied her call for the coalition's expansion to the commissions of inquiry being formed.
"Mr. Prime Minister, establish a national emergency government that will determine the mistakes we made for years that led to this war," Itzik said. "This [new] government must prepare us for the next war. This government will express the consensus among the people over our just execution of this war. This is the national call to readiness of us all."

Unfortunately, Netanyahu's first respone was less than encouraging.

Netanyahu told Itzik that such a government should have been established before the operations in Lebanon began. He said his differences of opinion with Olmert were too stark to unite in one government.

Netanyahu , whose stellar behavior during the war went a long way towards rehabilitating his standing with the Israeli public, is facing the ultimate test of leadership. Will he follow in Dayan's footsteps and help to reorganize Israel's political and military leadership to better deal with the difficult situation in which the country find itself or will he prove too petulent for such a magnanimous act? For the sake of all of us, I hope he will choose to do the right thing. Either way, Dalia Itzik has just proved she has the real stuff.

Update: In a recent interview with bloggers Netanyahu did not rule out the creation of a national unity government but said that the initiative should come from Prime Minister Olmert. Cute!

Posted on Tuesday, August 15, 2006 at 2:07 PM | Comments (0) | Return

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