Israeli Political Situation

As interesting as American politics gets, it can never match the craziness of Israeli style politics. To sum up the events of the past three days, the Winograd Commission ripped Olmert and Peretz for their conduct of the war, Olmert insisted he would not resign, the chairman of Kadimah resigned, Foreign Minister Livni called on Olmert to resign, Olmert is getting ready to fire Livni, 4 no-confidence measures have been introduced in Knesset, and Netanyahu awaits his chance to become Prime Minister again. It is the conduct of Livni that I find most amazing. By calling on Olmert to resign she is hoping that by Olmert stepping aside, she would win the Kadimah primary to be held within 2 months and become Prime Minister through the back door. I can think of no precedent for a number 2 person calling on the head of government to resign so they could take over. It is the equivalent of Cheney calling on Bush to resign over the conduct of the Iraq war so that Cheney could become President. A more honest approach by Livni would have had her resigning her position and calling for new elections so that Israelis may decide who their new Prime Minister is through the democratic process of elections. It is clear that Kadimah fears new elections as Olmert has a 3% approval rating (it may be lower now after the report's findings). Hopefully, one of the days, Israel will fix its political system to eliminate the influence of small parties and end coalitions which bring together disparate parties.