A Government Of Gray Party Hacks

But the brutish wolf did not reckon with the wiliness of the fox. Ehud Olmerttwisted the gross braggart around his little finger. At the last moment,Liberman was left on shore, looking on with longing eyes as the ship, bedeckedwith gay flags, put out to sea without him.

Furious, he threw away his amiable mask, and gave a speech in the Knessetdemanding the execution of the Arab deputies who had met with the members of thePalestinian government. After that, even Beilin will not be having breakfastwith him any more.

The second piece of good news is that Shaul Mofaz hasbeen removed from the Ministry of Defense. This primitive man, the king of"targeted liquidations", has been thrown from the high tower ofDefense into the empty well of Transportation. One can enjoy the cartoon showingMofaz driving a tank down the streets of Tel-Aviv.

This joy is mixed with deep anxiety. It is difficult to get used to theappellation "Minister of Defense Amir Peretz". Only a few hours beforehe took the oath of office in the Knesset, soldiers shot an innocent Palestiniantaxi driver in the back and killed him. The day before, they had killed "bymistake" a Palestinian woman at her home. From now on, Peretz will bear theresponsibility for such acts, which have become part of the daily routine ofoccupation. He has put himself into an almost impossible position. The nextdemonstrations we hold will probably have to be against him.

The third item of good news is that this is a civiliangovernment. The four key players (Prime Minister and Ministers of Defense,Finance and Foreign Affairs) are civilians. Undoubtedly, a sign of maturity.

Among the 25 cabinet ministers, there are "only" two generals (Mofaz,Binyamin Ben-Eliezer), both in junior positions. Even the number of Shin-Betofficers in the cabinet (Gideon Ezra, Avi Dichter, Raffi Eytan) is larger thanthat. But let's not rejoice too soon: a civilian government may be browbeaten bythe might of the generals and feel the urge to prove its military prowess(echoing the song: Anything you can do, I can do better…) Will these civiliansdare to act against the advice of the Chief-of-Staff, who takes part in everycabinet meeting and dictates policy in the name of "security"?

In this government, there are no lions. This is a government of foxes, headedby the leader of the pack. With Ariel Sharon, the last of the great figures ofthe 1948 war is gone. The presence of the pathetic Shimon Peres only underlinesthis. This is a government of gray party hacks.

There are two glaring holes in it. Olmert made his first major mistake whenhe did not include a member of the Russian-speaking community in the newcabinet. A million immigrants from the former Soviet Union, many of them imbuedwith a rabid racism they brought with them, will now be pushed even further intoa corner. This is a great danger. Bad news.

Another community of a million and a quarter is also left outside: the Arabcitizens. Like all its predecessors, this government, the 31st in the state's 58years of existence, is a Jewish government, not an Israeli one. It doesn't havea single Arab member. This large community will also be pushed to the margins.Bad news, indeed. All of Olmert's empty phrases about equality between allcitizens cannot cover this up.

So what will top the agenda of the Olmert government?It seems that the most plausible answer is prosaic: its very existence. It isunified by the ardent desire to survive until the end of its four and a halfyears' term. (The half is a leftover from the last government).

This was most vividly expressed by the orgy of kisses in the Knesset when thenew ministers took the oath of office. Such an outburst of childish happiness ismore typical of lottery-winners than ministers called upon to deal with fatefulproblems.

The Knesset Speaker, Dalia Itzig, the first woman ever to occupy this post,became a Mezuzah, kissed by all the ministers (except for the Orthodox) on herraised podium. Afterwards, the new ministers kissed each other and all theKnesset members they came across, accompanying this with hearty embraces andslaps on the back. If we assume that every minister kissed a dozen persons onaverage, that makes 300 kisses.

It is difficult to imagine such a scene in any other parliament, not tomention the first Knesset. David Ben-Gurion was no great kisser.

The flag flying from the mast is, of course, the flagof Convergence. That was and is Olmert's main slogan. But one should not holdone's breath waiting for its implementation.

Olmert himself has announced that before the realization, much time should bedevoted to dialogue. Dialogue with whom? Well, with the settlers. And with theUnited States. And with the "international community".

Anyone missing from the list? Only the Palestinians. With them it is notpossible (nor necessary) to talk - until they recognize the right of existenceof Israel as a Jewish State, accept all past treaties, stop the violence andconfiscate the weapons of the organizations. In short, surrenderunconditionally. And become members of the Zionist Organization, too, while theyare at it. Olmert is patient. He is ready to wait for two years.

During these two years, the United States and the international community areexpected to recognize the "permanent" borders that the Olmertgovernment wants to fix "unilaterally", at its pleasure, without theagreement of the Palestinians and without even talking with them.

In the two years, the government will do nothing for peace. On the contrary,it will enlarge the settlement blocs - in order to prepare housing for thesettlers who will be moved there, when the time comes, from the isolatedsettlements. That's to say: first of all the big settlements will be annexed andenlarged, and after that - God willing - some small settlements will bedismantled. According to the plan, all the settlers will remain on the otherside of the Green Line. Olmert has already rejected out of hand the suggestionthat compensation be paid to the settlers who are willing to come back to Israelnow.

And what is the really good news? This governmentspeaks publicly about the "partition of the country" as the"lifeline of Zionism". It speaks of withdrawal from "most ofJudea and Samaria" and the dismantling of settlements. That shows a bigshift in public opinion.

One of the leading racists in the Knesset, Effi Eytam, shouted that"there is no Jewish majority for withdrawal". He should be sent backto third grade to learn his arithmetic. True, according to theracist-nationalist accounting, there are only 58 Jewish members of the Knessetin favor of withdrawal (28 Jewish members of Kadima, 17 of Labor, 7 Pensioners,5 Meretz, the 1 Jewish member of Hadash). But against them, only 50 Jewishmembers oppose withdrawal (Likud, Shas, the Orthodox, the Liberman people andthe National Union). The remaining 12 members are Arabs, who can be presumed tosupport withdrawal (1 of Kadima, 2 of Labor, 2 Hadash, 3 Balad, 4 of the UnitedArab Party).

Accordingly, there is not only a large majority in the Knesset (70 against50) for the partition of the country, but even a "Jewish majority" (58against 50). That is a geological change in public opinion - a sign of a slowbut massive and ongoing process.

Few believe that this government will indeed last forfour and a half years. The general guess is that it will fall in two years, whenthe "convergence" is slated to start. At that time, Shas will probablysecede.

Olmert asked us to be patient. Alright, then, let us be patient as we waitfor the next elections.