SELF-HARMING IS AN INDICATOR OF ILLNESS, NOT OF TOUGHNESS:

Olmert's Final Failure (Jackson Diehl, December 29, 2008, Washington Post)

Israel's new battle with Hamas in Gaza means that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be remembered for fighting two bloody and wasteful mini-wars in less than three years in power. The first one, in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, punished but failed to defeat or even permanently injure Hezbollah, which is politically and militarily stronger today than it was before Olmert took office. This one will probably have about the same effect on Hamas, which almost certainly will still control Gaza, and retain the capacity to strike Israel, when Olmert leaves office in a few months.

The saddest aspect of all this is that Olmert, a former hard-line believer in a "greater Israel," was more committed than any previous Israeli prime minister to ending the country's conflicts with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians.

No, Ariel Sharon was, because he grasped the demographic and democratic realities. The tragedy of Olmert is that he's no Sharon or Palestine would today be a state governed by a nationally-elected Hamas.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 29, 2008 9:28 AM