MKs: 'Olmert creating a virtual reality'

Public figures and MKs from Left and Right say PM trying to divert attention ahead of Winograd report.

Olmert Herzliya 224.88 (photo credit: GPO)
Olmert Herzliya 224.88
(photo credit: GPO)
Politicians and public figures from both the left and the right of the political spectrum blasted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Thursday for remarks he made the previous night during his speech to the Herzliya Conference. "Both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and [then-chief of staff] Dan Halutz should have resigned immediately after the [Second Lebanon] War", former IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon told Army Radio. According to Ya'alon, "the objectives of the war were perfectly achievable, but the government's botched performance cost us dearly". The former chief of staff also responded to claims Olmert made in his speech to the effect that the North was flourishing as it had not flourished in 25 years. "The North was also quiet after the withdrawal from Lebanon [in 2000]. We saw what happened to us since that move," he said. Olmert said that while Hizbullah had rearmed since the war and now had more rockets and missiles than it did before the campaign, Israel had since strengthened its deterrence, and neither Hizbullah nor other enemies in the North were now in a hurry to fight Israel. Furthermore, Olmert said, the North had experienced a period of peace and quiet over the last 18 months that it had not known for the past 25 years. Ya'alon also referred to recent events along the Gaza-Egypt border. "This might be an opportunity for us to amend our errors and truly disengage from the Strip. Egypt can take the responsibility", Ya'alon said. Earlier, the prime minister was lambasted by politicians from across the political spectrum over his speech. "The prime minister is cut off from his surroundings, which is why he is creating a virtual reality," MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) told Army Radio Thursday morning in response to a the prime minister's pledge that he would seal an agreement with the Palestinians by the year's end. MK Gilad Erdan made the assertion that all of Israel was awaiting Olmert's resignation. "Olmert is trying to create a virtual reality ahead of the Winograd report. Maybe he does not regret the decisions he made but all of the Israeli people regret that he is still prime minister." Olmert had said that "in the ultimate accounting, after weighing all the events, the disappointments, the failures, the accomplishments and victories, I am not sorry about the critical decisions I made as prime minister - neither those related to the fighting in Lebanon, nor those related to other events." From the other end of the political spectrum, MK Zehava Gal-On called Olmert's statement "an attempt to divert the discussion from wartime failures and escape the Winograd report." Herb Keinon contributed to this report