Patterico's Pontifications

7/30/2008

Israel’s Olmert to Step Down

Filed under: International — DRJ @ 11:37 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced today he would step down in September and would not run in the Kadima Party primary. The AP described Olmert as angry as he criticized the corruption investigations that forced him to:

“… defend myself against relentless attacks from self-appointed ‘fighters for justice’ who sought to depose me from my position, when the ends sanctified all the means.”

At times, Olmert’s popularity in the polls has sunk below 20% causing some political analysts to predict he would resign. The AP report states that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is the early favorite to replace Olmert, which would make her and Golda Meir the only female Israeli prime ministers.

My knowledge of Israeli politics is limited so I don’t have any meaningful insights to add to this story but I’m sure there are readers and commenters who have valuable thoughts to share. However, I couldn’t pass it up because of the statement by Dan Margalit, “an Israeli political analyst and longtime friend of Olmert,” who described Olmert’s resignation as “a sad end to a miserable career.”

With friends like that …

— DRJ

8 Responses to “Israel’s Olmert to Step Down”

  1. “Israel’s Olmert to Step Down”

    Zippity do dah
    Zippity a
    My oh my what a wonderful day!

    Kevin (834f0d) — 7/30/2008 @ 12:32 pm

  2. Olmert was possibly the worst thing to happen to Israel since it was founded.

    Cicero (8db983) — 7/30/2008 @ 1:07 pm

  3. I’m glad it’s still early in the day so Obama can take credit. He’s a Lightworker, you know..

    Vermont Neighbor (31ccb6) — 7/30/2008 @ 1:27 pm

  4. The complete description was “… longtime friend of Olmert who recently fell from his favor” which is not quite the same thing.

    James B. Shearer (fc887e) — 7/30/2008 @ 2:28 pm

  5. What a putz.

    Jack (d9cbc5) — 7/30/2008 @ 2:39 pm

  6. After the fiasco against Hezbollah/Lebanon, he should have had the decency to resign, or be run out of town on a rail. His continued presence at the head of the Government was not inspiring.

    Another Drew (8018ee) — 7/30/2008 @ 2:52 pm

  7. Israeli news reports state that Olmert gave orders that records showing illegal Arab building in Jerusalem were to be destroyed. The relevant quote was

    “Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes. Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority,”

    Sabba Hillel (b3a959) — 7/31/2008 @ 5:07 am

  8. Whom would Jesus vote for?

    Michael Ejercito (a757fd) — 7/31/2008 @ 9:28 am


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