Olmert's defeatism

In 1979, then-president Jimmy Carter delivered an astoundingly pessimistic speech. He started off talking about how he spoke with ordinary Americans and what they had to say:

I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you. It has been an extraordinary 10 days, and I want to share with you what I've heard. First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.

This from a southern Governor: "Mr. President, you are not leading this Nation -- you're just managing the Government."

"You don't see the people enough any more."

"Some of your Cabinet members don't seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples."

"Don't talk to us about politics or the mechanics of government, but about an understanding of our common good."

"Mr. President, we're in trouble. Talk to us about blood and sweat and tears."

"If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow."

And yet, although Carter heard the words that Americans were saying - that he was a really poor leader - he misinterpreted them as if it was America's problem, not his:

I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

Carter was one of the worst presidents in history, and this is one reason why: instead of leading, he whined; instead of showing pride for America, he despaired; instead of the strength that people need from a leader he chose to be a very bad therapist.

I'm reminded of this when I see how lame-duck Olmert is acting lately.

Today, there was a gleeful but accurate headline in Iran's Press TV:

Olmert pronounces Greater Israel dead

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the idea of "Greater Israel"-- the main motto of the Zionist founders of the Israeli regime-- is dead.

"'Greater Israel' is finished. There is no such thing as that anymore. Whoever talks in those terms is only deluding himself," the prime minister admitted at a cabinet meeting.

"It doesn't help Israel. The international community has changed its perspective ahead of the possibility of Israel becoming a bi-national state," he said.

" I believed that the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean was all ours since in every place there that is excavated, there is evidence of Jewish History. But finally, after a lot of suffering and misgivings, I came to the conclusion that we need to share the land with whom we are residing if we don't want to become a bi-national state," Olmert said.

The premier also warned that the clock is "not ticking in Israel's favor."

The malaise that Israel is suffering from is not from the people, but from the utterly incompetent leadership that has been represented by Ehud Olmert. He unilaterally declared defeat in Gaza and now Judea and Samaria, ceding the historic Jewish ties to land that is far more important religiously and historically than Tel Aviv because he lacks the imagination and the will to come up with ways that Israel can keep the land and the Arabs can still have real choices for self-determination and to raise their families in dignity. He has kept erasing red lines without drawing new ones, acting more like someone hellbent on surrender than a leader of a great nation. He learned nothing from the Gaza debacle, wanting to repeat it again and again. He treats his most patriotic citizens as his enemies and his enemies as if they are his allies. He has consistently lied to his people and he continues to do so as he squirms to avoid mounting criminal charges.

And even now, as his term ends, his one note of consistency and strength is in his steadfast willingness to surrender to Israel's sworn enemies. To allow parts of historic, Biblical Israel to be permanently Judenrein, from which rockets can reach every major population area and Israel's major airport. To hand the most valuable asset Israel has to people who, sometimes explicitly but always implicitly, consider this to be only a stage in Israel's ultimate destruction. To trust a new neighboring nation populated with those who have consistently and overwhelmingly expressed their support for terror against Jewish civilians in the Middle East.

No wonder Iran is gleeful. Olmert is now confirming everything Ahmadinejad has been saying - that in his opinion, the Zionists will lose.

Olmert and his party of ashamed Zionism needs to go, now.