Posted By: Margaret Pozzini

by Jacques Pinto

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Eight months after he won the Israeli election under the imposing shadow of Ariel Sharon's legacy, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is facing growing and scorching criticism over his policies. ADVERTISEMENT
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"There is a feeling in the country that there is no one at the helm," said the political analyst of the liberal Haaretz daily, Akiva Eldar on Friday.

Olmert has been saddled by a wave of popular discontent over Israel's month-long war in Lebanon this summer, and a string of scandals and allegations of wrongdoing implicating members of his cabinet and the premier himself.

"This is the worst leadership confidence crisis since the traumatising Yom Kippur War of October 1973, which was the first war where, for a moment, there was a feeling Israel was losing," said Eldar.

"After the March 2006 elections, Olmert was given carte blanche from voters as the heir of Ariel Sharon, who suffered a debilitating stroke on January 4, at the head of the centrist Kadima party," he added.

Olmert won at the polls on a ticket of redrawing Israel's borders in the West Bank and dismantling dozens of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory.

He nevertheless shelved this plan less than six months later, following the Lebanon war and spiraling violence in the Gaza Strip.

"Stripped of Sharon's stature and charisma, Olmert could only offer the threat of the Iranian nuclear bomb," which Israel claims Tehran is constructing under the guise of a peaceful nuclear programme, Eldar said.

World acclaimed Israeli writer David Grossman, whose son Uri was killed in Lebanon this summer, has leveled some of the sharpest criticism against Olmert's leadership, amid the wave of discontent over the conflict.

"One of the most difficult outcomes of the recent war is the heightened realisation that at this time there is no king in Israel, that our leadership is hollow.

"Our military and political leadership is hollow," he told thousands recently gathered at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square.

Grossman was speaking at a memorial rally for assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who for many symbolised the hope for peacefully ending the bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Turn to the Palestinians, Mr Olmert, address them over the heads of Hamas, appeal to their moderates ... turn to the Palestinian people, speak to their deep grief and wounds, acknowledge their ongoing suffering," he said.

The killings of 18 Palestinians, mostly women and children, as Israeli shells slammed into private homes in a Gaza town on Wednesday seems, however, to dash any lingering hopes for a quick renewal of the stalled peace process.

The Beit Hanun killing raised widespread criticism from across the world and vows of vengeance by Palestinian militant groups.

Grossman's speech came weeks after thousands called for Olmert and his cabinet to resign over the handling of the war against Shiite guerrillas of Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the army appeared to fail to clinch a decisive win.

"There is a certain trust crisis in the country towards its leadership," says political scientist Abraham Diskin.

"The Israeli already showed it at the last elections with a very low turnout of 63 percent, which was the lowest in Israel's history."

Olmert's recent involvement in several police investigations into allegedly unlawful real estate deals, which he allegedly used to pay for his election campaigns, have further weakened the premier's reputation.

One recent poll indicated that Olmert is perceived as the country's most corrupt politician.

His leadership has also come under fire by two of Israel's most prominent Nobel prize laureates, economist Robert J. Aumann and chemist Aharon Ciechanover, who branded Israeli leaders "pathetic" in an interview with the Yediot Aharonot daily.

Nevertheless some analysts recognise that Olmert, perhaps one of Israel's most skillful if perhaps not charismatic politicians, may well bounce back.

"Olmert is an old fox in Israeli politics, arrogant, intelligent and experienced, but he does not have the grandeur," said Diskin.

"All in all, despite all the bashing, Olmert is showing great agility and I wouldn't be surprised if he comes out stronger from this crisis," he said.

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