Region | Palestinian Territories
Internal bickering rattles Olmert's government
A number of Israeli businessmen have rushed a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Knesset members urging them to concentrate on rebuilding of northern Israel rather than bickering until the war is completely over.
- By Khalil Al Assali, Correspondent
- Published: 23:34 May 3, 2009
- Image Credit: AP
- Israeli armoured vehicles are parked near the Israeli-Lebanese border in northern Israel. Israel warned on Saturday that its raid in eastern Lebanon, its first since a ceasefire went into effect six days ago, may not be its last.
Occupied Jerusalem: A number of Israeli businessmen have rushed a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Knesset members urging them to concentrate on rebuilding of northern Israel rather than bickering until the war is completely over.
The letter concluded: "We invite leaders, people and the media to postpone stabbing and not to transform the coming days into an unbearable inferno of exchanged accusations, and to concentrate on bridging the gap that is widening between the different categories of society."
The letter came at a time internal fighting took over political and military ranks before a complete pull-out of troops from southern Lebanon.
The exchange of accusations in Israel, nicknamed 'The Lebanon Curse' by the Israeli media, is an attempt to find "a scapegoat for the failures of that war", said Silver Plozker, a journalist in Yedioth Ahronot.
"If military commanders and politicians go on looking for scapegoats, Israel will enter an internal conflict of a scale we have never seen before," he added.
In a recent article, Plozker attacked Israeli Chief of Staff General Dan Halutz for selling out shares just hours before the war started. The conduct was considered immoral but Plozker criticised the Central Bank for leaking the news.
Following the article, the bank's general directorate hurriedly put together an investigation committee to find out identities of those behind leaking of the news.
Halutz would, however, pay dearly and his career would come to an end, speculated Dan Margalet, the same journalist who toppled Isaac Rabin from the premiership and chairmanship of Labour party after he spilled the news of a bank account that belonged to Rabin's wife. Though the account was almost empty save for a few hundred dollars, Rabin decided to resign and vanish from the public scene for years.
Besides the media, there were others who too speculated that 'Lebanon's Curse' would cast a shadow on Olmert's government. And sure enough, as soon as the ceasefire came into effect, problems surfaced.
There are calls for investigation into the political and military decisions that led to the war. Criminal investigation was called against one of the prominent ministers in the government, Haim Ramon, accused of sexual harassment and also the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Committee Chairman, Tzachi Hanegbi, accused of taking bribes and corruption.
Hanegbi is a close friend of the Israeli Prime Minister and is considered a pillar in Kadima party. Recent polls showed the party was set to lose any elections it might face now.
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