Michael J. Totten: Protesting Incompetence

May 04, 2007

Protesting Incompetence

By Noah Pollak

TEL AVIV -- Last night, on one of the first warm evenings of the spring, at least 120,000 Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square to declare their dissatisfaction with the Olmert government.

In a clever use of English, French, and Hebrew, this sign says "Olmert -- Go Home." Photo copyright Noah Pollak.

The catalyst for the event was the release, on Monday, of the Winograd Commission’s report detailing the failures of Israel’s leadership during the war against Hezbollah last summer. (This critique, by Efraim Inbar in the Middle East Quarterly, is also worth reading.) In Israel, there is a long and admirable history of commissions being assembled to examine military failures in painful detail. Before Winograd, as Roger Cohen points out in the International Herald Tribune, “Golda Meir and [Moshe] Dayan were forced out by the findings of the Agranat Commission on the 1973 [Yom Kippur] war, and the Kahan Commission on the 1982 Lebanon war cost Sharon his job as minister of defense and eventually led to the resignation of [Menachem] Begin.” The findings of these inquiries are taken seriously by the public and government alike to a degree that is foreign to Americans. Can anyone imagine hundreds of thousands of people assembling on the Washington Mall to rally for the Baker-Hamilton Commission report, which appears to have only been taken seriously by the media? Does anyone even remember what Baker-Hamilton was supposed to accomplish?

The purpose of the Winograd report is much more obvious: A transparent accounting of what went wrong during the Lebanon war, for public consumption. A reckoning. But the release of the report only partially explains the size of the turnout, or its mood, which was subdued and reluctantly, rarely, boisterous. The larger undercurrent is the feeling that, despite a remarkable economic boom and the containment of Palestinian terrorism, the past year has been a dangerous example of the perils of feckless leadership. The three abducted soldiers remain in captivity; rockets from Gaza land in the Negev regularly; Nasrallah gloats, quite convincingly, from Lebanon; missiles and arms pour into Southern Lebanon from Syria, unimpeded by the indolent “international force” that patrols the area; and Iran races toward the realization of its nuclear ambitions. And there is another source of the worry that pervades Israel. That is the absence, in the post-Sharon era, of Israel’s founding fathers in the country’s political leadership. Almost every one of the statesmen who built this country out of stone and swamp and battle has passed on -- and in this test of the new generation, in the Olmert government, Israelis are witnessing the disgraceful spectacle of leaders not only lacking in the wisdom and dedication of the founders, but who also turn out to be corrupt, ignorant of how to lead the IDF into war, and unreliable under pressure.

And so Israel falls back on its strongest asset, its people. Politicians were not permitted to speak at the protest. There was very little 1960’s pageantry to be found last night, and virtually no dumb sloganeering or vapid pacifism. This was a thoroughly middle class protest. The nation’s grown-ups arrived to announce their desire to take the state back from the ambitious dilettantes who had been mistakenly entrusted with power. The Israelis present, from the left, right, and center, wished to save the nation from unseriousness. Last night, the need for competence trumped ideology.

Photo copyright Noah Pollak.

Posted by Noah Pollak at May 4, 2007 10:54 AM

Comments

120000 is pathetic. I should know, I'm one of the pathetic sods that couldn't get of his ass to attend the rally. My excuse was that I had to look after the kids while my wife worked, but truth is I could have found a babysitter. Its just that in the back of mind I kept saying to myself, "ah, there won't be enough people there for it to really matter anyway", and I guess in the end it was a self fulfilling prophecy.

Olmert MUST go. It doesn't matter who replaces him at this stage - Livni, Netanyahu, Azmi Bishara - its just the principle of the matter. In a normal country, when a politician messes up this badly, they have the common decency to quit. Here, they hang on for dear life. Where is their sense of shame? This goes for our marvelous president, our defense minister and our finance minister as well.

Posted by: Jonorose at May 4, 2007 12:22 PM

There are any number of reasons why something similar hasn't happened in the US:

-Security isn't nearly as sensitive an issue in the US since we haven't fought a war anywhere near our borders since WW2. By contrast Israeli operations have a direct impact across the country.

-The "blue ribbon panel" concept holds no weight in the US because they tend to either be heavily politicized, or they lack substance due to fear of upsetting anyone. And perhaps most importantly hardly any US figures hold wide respect, which is vital to making any such panel respected as a whole.

-Combining the first two, Americans don't pay nearly as much attention to the news and politics as Israelis do, and thus don't even know about panels and reports, or the typical members of these panels. Most Americans couldn't tell you who Al Gore was in 1999, most can't tell you who Cheney is today, and they sure don't know who Lee Hamilton is let alone why his opinion matters.

Sadly there's next to no chance of a non-partisan broad-spectrum rally happening on any issue here in the US. Thank goodness it's happening in Israel.

Posted by: David Ditch at May 4, 2007 12:27 PM

The Israelis present, from the left, right, and center, wished to save the nation from unseriousness. Last night, the need for competence trumped ideology.

What a wonderful image. When will us Americans be rescued from the fickle ineptitude of the bellowing and bombastic unserious?

Some have portrayed US Politics as American Idol writ Stupid. If only we had a 'panel' to render the scathing commentary we all imagine.

Imagine a political debate al la MST3K. Perhaps the candidates hearing the scathing derision of the audience would do something. Or perhaps we'd move the 'Protest Zone' outside of the building - allowing us to finally hit the power button on the Republic as we drive to Starbucks for another fix.

Posted by: Michael in Colorado at May 4, 2007 02:54 PM

Jonorose -- please go next time -- and I gather there will be continued protests? It took months to push Meir and Dagan out, if I recall my reading. I hope Israel hasn't been infected with the civic apathy, navel-gazing and escapism, and sense of learned helplessness that grips the US.

Posted by: Pam at May 4, 2007 03:44 PM

How come I don't see anyone calling this a coup detent, or an Israeli 'manifestation', or 'occupation' of public sectors?

sometimes your double standards are strikingly ugly. The exact same demands are made by the protesters of Lebanese and Israel, yet the Lebanese are labelled the most groteque of phrases such as 'Syrian-Iranian- agents and tools, occupiers, manifesters and attempting a coup etc.

Posted by: Yo Yo at May 4, 2007 04:36 PM

Yo Yo,
Are you trying to compare the protest in Tel AViv with the Hezbollah occupation of downtown Beirut?

You have no idea how funny that is. If you knew what sort of people attended the rally in Tel Aviv, I'm sure you'd laugh too.

Coup D'estat? LMFAO!!!

Posted by: Jonorose at May 5, 2007 02:29 AM

In Israel, pacifism and incompetence will get you killed. But I can't help but point out that Israelis chose the location of their country, knowing their new neighbors would not approve.

Regardless, what is happening in the middle east will be happening in Europe and North America soon enough. Voters in the US should contemplate that pacifism and incompetence, although in favor in their country at the moment, will get them killed too.

Posted by: Les Temps at May 5, 2007 07:54 AM

Chose the location of our country????

Give me a break.
Not only are you ignoring that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jews, but you also seem to be suggesting that it was like buying a house, that we could have just chosen a better neighborhood.

Maybe we could have set up in Europe. That was a great neighborhood for us.

Posted by: jonorose at May 5, 2007 09:07 AM

Organizers of the rally put the number at 250,000 who attended, I'm not sure there were that many but definitely more than 120,000. All I can say is that there were a LOT of people there and not just in the square itself, which is huge, but packing the major street around it, Ibn Givrol, for a length of 3 blocks. Also a lot of people couldn't make it in because of the traffic backup and lack of parking in the city. I had friends who tried to get in from Jerusalem and they had to park so far away that by the time they got there it was ending.

Olmert indeed has to go but he is not going to resign. If there had been 6 of our 7 million citizens there he would still refuse to resign. He is a complete slimeball (though Bibi Netanyahu is not better).

Hey Jonorose why not bring the kids? Lots and lots of people did! It was very much a family event. With or without them, come next time. It is going to take a lot more than one protest rally to get that imbecile out of office.

Les Temp--Oh, I see what you mean, like maybe we should have all settled in Poland. They just love us in Poland as anyone can see with all those monuments set up to the memory of the Jews there. Please.

Posted by: Yael at May 5, 2007 11:53 AM

Yo yo: the Lebanese are labelled the most groteque of phrases such as 'Syrian-Iranian- agents and tools, occupiers, manifesters and attempting a coup etc.

That's because those things are true of the terrorist army and illegal foreign proxy militia occupying downtown Beirut and are not true of the nonpartisan Israelis who protested for a couple of hours in Tel Aviv. There are no United Nations resolutions demanding the Tel Aviv protestors turn over their weapons to the legitimate authorities.

Hezbollah is the private army of a foreign state in Lebanon. The Tel Aviv protesters are not an army and are not controlled by any foreign countries.

If you admire Hezbollah (and it seems you do) you should at least understand what it is you're admiring. That way you might understand why most of the world is against you on this.

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at May 5, 2007 11:57 AM

Looserim, ha bey-e-ta!

Posted by: MarkC at May 5, 2007 01:06 PM

Sorry Noah, I have to disagree a bit with your conclusion:
"Last night, the need for competence trumped ideology."

Before competence can be judged, standards of good and bad competence have to be defined. I don't think the Israelis are yet serious about defining what a "good" outcome would have been, nor what the "good" actions to take would have been, combined with the likely reactions of Hezbollah.

Similary, Olmert won't go until a majority AGREE ... on ONE (and only one) person who they think is better. It easy to say, and even agree with a "majority', that Olmert (or Bush!) is terrible, but not so easy to agree who would be better.

(Noah, you wrote very much like Michael, thank you; or did Michael write it and you post it with great pictures?)

Posted by: Tom Grey - Liberty Dad at May 5, 2007 02:43 PM

Tom,
Thank you for your kind words about my post. I'm flattered that you think I write like Michael. Anyway, you're right that one of the central political problems in Israel today is the lack of quality alternatives to Olmert. Barak and Netanyahu, both of whom served as prime minister, are likely to seek leadership roles, but the public is deeply, and rightfully, ambivalent about them. Livni is another name that comes up frequently, but she is untested would likely be a weak leader.

That said, I must respectfully disagree with you on the matter of competence: the public need not be unified in agreement about the source of a problem or about the best course of action for its resolution to legitimately nurture a sense of disgust with its political leaders. Sometimes, as is the case today, it is obvious that the leadership failed, and failed in a grave way that will harm Israel -- and Lebanon, I should note -- for many years to come. Everyone may not agree, for example, that a ground campaign should have commenced sooner, or that the fighting should not have stopped until the fate of the abducted soldiers was accounted for; but the public would still be right to demand a change of leadership, given the well-documented record of incompetence on the part of the incumbents.

Posted by: Noah Pollak at May 5, 2007 03:26 PM

Are these people protesting the decision to go to war, or they way the war was fought?

The report basically says that the war was unwinnable, yet quite popular with the people of Israel.

Perhaps they are protesting themselves?

On a side note, the report link goes to an English translation that is rather...incompetent.

Irony indeed.

Posted by: alphie at May 5, 2007 05:58 PM

They're protesting that not enough bombs and ground soldiers were deployed against Lebanon.

Posted by: tg at May 5, 2007 07:36 PM

Regarding the question of who can replace the leadership, when Tsippi Livni is mentioned people say she has no experience. The problem is that everyone who has experience is tainted, so Israelis are going to have to look among the (relatively) untested ranks for their future leaders.

Posted by: ilana at May 5, 2007 11:00 PM

Yes, well, on the other hand....

A bit of sobriety from Amir Taheri; via Martin Kramer.

Posted by: Barry Meislin at May 6, 2007 01:02 AM

Bah. The protestors are fooling themselves if they think Olmert stepping down will solve Israel's their problems, or that any other politician in charge of the Lebanon War would have resulted in a different outcome. The real problem in Israel is that IDF is a sacred object whose decisions are unchallengeable. Blaming Olmert for failing to overrule the army in the face of a media and public stranglehold on the army's virtue and the politico's vices, is like blaming Colin Powell for not singlehandedly stopping the Second Iraq War.

And the Israeli system is learning nothing from the debacle - it's completely ignoring the Winograd Commission's detailed discussion of how the political system's influence is neutered in the face of a sloppy and incompetent, overconfident army leadership. It's just reading the cover on Olmert and blindly seeking his scalp.
Netanyahu, Lieberman, Ami Ayalon, Ehud Barak, god help us, or whoever you stick in the slot, you if you try to invade Lebanon again, you will have the same kinds of problems.

If the American experience in Iraq isn't enough to clue you in that no amount of tactical competence will make all your problems work out nice and neat, than there is no object lesson large enough to clue you in.

Posted by: glasnost at May 6, 2007 08:14 AM

Jonorose, I think Ya'el is probably right about how many came to the demo. I watched it on TV and saw how far the crowd extended. And of course I know the neighborhood, from other demos there as well. But concerning Moshe Katsav, I think you're too quick to convict him. There are a lot of fishy things about the investigation and prosecution of Katsav. Like, why was Mazuz, the Attorney General, the one who actually started the investigation & prosecution of Katsav after Katsav had complained to him of a blackmail attempt?? There also certain influential people who may have a very big urge for revenge against Katsav. Like, think of a fellow named Shim`on whose family name is a bird of prey. And just maybe Mazuz is one of the more corrupt people in the country, since he has not indicted Olmert for all of the criminal findings about him by the State Controller, nor has Mazuz even hinted that he intends to indict or even might indict Olmert, whose corruption is shall we say stratospheric.

I don't agree with Ya'el's evaluation of Bibi. He has gotten a very bad press for ideological reasons. Indeed, the press hostility handicapped him while he was pm. He is more likely to stand up to the Washington crowd, who are very unhelpful to the values that they themselves proclaim. Consider how the State Dept, following Baker-Hamilton, is now playing up to Syria, which is guilty of many murders in Lebanon, and which wants to take Lebanon back.

Posted by: Eliyahu at May 6, 2007 08:20 AM

Glasnost lives far from Israel and knows little about it except what he reads which may be false and misleading. Why don't you listen to us Israelis, and not your know-it-all self?

Posted by: Eliyahu at May 6, 2007 08:23 AM

The real problem in Israel is that IDF is a sacred object whose decisions are unchallengeable

Glasnost may not live in Israel, but he/she can't even read widely to come up with BS like that...

Posted by: mertel at May 6, 2007 08:53 AM

1) A protest is a protest, whatever you try to call it or make it look like. No country or militia can get 1.5 million people, or a third of a country's population to demonstrate using fear tactics or bribing or w.e.

2) The protestrs in Lebanon, just like those in Israel, are from every political spectrum. They come from at least 15 different political party. It isn't just a Hezbollah protest. Unlike the Israel protest, the Lebanese one is a multi-confessional one too.

3) If anyone in the world considers that the beliefs of more than half a countries population are dissillusions, evil and terrorist, then they have a problem. Those people are their for a reason - and it isn't for Iran. Whats Iran ever done to anyone in this world? Israel's caused 7 wars, America's caused a couple thousand, Britain conquered 3/4 of the planet, Germany exterminated Jews and so on. Neo-cons go on about hwo Iran is a terror nation or w.e. when Iran hasn't been linked with solid evidence to anything! Then they go on about the whole nuke story, Pakistan has Nukes, and the muslims their are much more fanatic believe me. Has Pakistan used them against anyone? No. And Pakistan is in a state of war with India. Iran isn't with anyone. Pakistan and India are fighting for a land the size of Israel itself, but no nukes have been used from neither side. Why Iran is an exeption when they have never sparked a war in their existance etc

4) Just like the west is trying gravely to establish their presence and Influence in the region, Iran as a main power in the region has every right to do the same back. Call Hezbollah what you like, they have been clever enough to use Iran for their own good. Hezbollah isn't a proxy, it's part of an Alliance. People start ghasping as soon as a Hezbollah official claims that a strike against Iran will bring instability. Just like America assists Israel in a state of war, why is it so forbidden for Hezbollah to do the same for Iran or vice versa?

5) As for all of those who call this an iranian-shiite coup etc. Hezbollah has re-iteratted a million times so far that it does not want to be in the government, it doesn't want to vetoe anything or have the power to do so. Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, among many other Hezbollah officials, has said again today that any representative of the Lebanese opposition can represent Hezbollah. Anyway Hezbollah has never been interested in being in the Lebanese Government, the 2005 elections were an exeption because of the national reconciliation talks. They were invited to be part of the government. Even though they only gained 6 seats, they were entitled to 13 seats according to the official results. The government forces have around 7 seats more than the opposition in parliament (thats around 5%).

6) "That way you might understand why most of the world is against you on this." the all knowing MJT,

During the war, the whole world called for an immediate ceasefire, only 3 countries objected. The wests kind of democracy is that 3 nations have the right to continue what they do even though another 200+ countries object to the atrocities going on.

Before and after the war, only 6 countries lablled Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. 3 of those countries (USA, Israel, Netherlands) call Hezbollah as a whole a terrorist organisation. While Britain, Canada and Australia call its 'foreing security agency' a terrorist one i.e. all Hezbollah agencies outside of Lebanon. Not one agency has been found existant to this day nor any links to them have been established anywhere. Its just another way for those 3 to tell israel and USA, its not that we like hezbollah, but we dnt hate them that much too. As for the EU, they held a vote on whether Hezbollah was or was not a terrorist organisation after the war ended. The EU unanimously elected Hezbollah as a non-terrorist group.

7) "Hezbollah is the private army of a foreign state in Lebanon. The Tel Aviv protesters are not an army and are not controlled by any foreign countries." MJT

As i explained before, Hezbollah isn't a private army of anyone. They were designated by the current Lebanese government as the national resistance, swallow that already. I personally believe that the IDF is USA's private army in the middle east, you dont see me bragin. As for the Tel Aviv protesters, alot of them are reservists in the army who fought in the war, and MOST of the protesters ARE reservists. Why? Because every Israel citien is conscripted into the army for 3 years (for men) and 2 years (for women), and then another 3 weeks a year for the rest of their lives (well, untill retirement or old age or w.e.). As for the Lebanese protestors, only around 800,000 of the 1.5 million were shiits, i dont think Hezbollah has a recruitment number of 800,000 people. The rest are from the FPM, marada etc i.e. not all were shiite, almost half were sunni, christian and allawite and even some druze.

THANK YOU :D

Posted by: Yo Yo at May 6, 2007 08:24 PM

The old style media events used to count crowds. ANd, turn them into pictures, appearing "above the fold." Today? The Internet sees more "hits" ... and nobody's counting all the people at home.

So, I have a rule. When you see 150,000 people gathered, what you don't see is the sale of "bags of popcorn."

In other words? While you think you see "a lot." I see SMALL. Doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

While, yes. There's an insider's game at play; pushing against Olmert, now. But he managed to hold on.

I hope this translates well for him. Because I think Likud and Labor are two dogs, barking to regain positions of power. AFTER people voted!

So? Well, if people can't vote in a candidate that can stay; you erode away the value of even going to vote.

So far? Ehud Barak? Oh, my gawd. What an idiot!

Again, Israel is a very argumentative place. With opinions from all over, vying with each other. I don't think you can tell the average Israeli what to do.

And, I think the Israelis know what it feels like to be "odd man out." And, not liked at all.

Could Israel have been more aggressive during the Lebanon "thing-y?" Well, once James Baker appeared, Olmert did the best possible stuff he could do with diplomatic-pants-dancing. Why should Bush get his terrorist "two-state" dance step to play in Israel?

By the way, you think I-R-A-K is a success? I think not.

And, someday, when the books come down the pike, Olmert will be shown to have been the wise man who kept Israel OUT of what the Saud's wanted to gain.

Politics doesn't get better than that! It's about doing what's POSSIBLE. It has nothing to do with God's miracles. (Unless, the Man Upstairs is somehow involved in the randomness of probabilities; when the dice fly down the table? You don't hear HIS voice, though. And, you don't feel HIS breath.) It's something we know nothing about, until the plays come home to roost.

I'm reminded that Lincoln suffered through four terrible years, as decisions went "south." But he held his ground.

Hopefully, Labor will have a reason to stay put, too? Given that Ben-Eliezer lost his groove, when he pulled away from Arik Sharon's first government.

For Olmert? I do understand that the screamers have the advantage, now. But what if this is no different that Feigle, and his whistle blowers; who tried to disrupt Arik Sharon?)

I'm hoping for the best. There are millions of people in Israel. 100,000 is a very weak percentage.

Posted by: Carol Herman at May 7, 2007 12:00 PM

carol; i like statistics too. we could talk about the democratic party in the US as a common example of how a statistical aberration being given a disproportionate voice.

olmert has disappointed me, i've attributed this to his socialism, right or wrong, communists always retain thier allegiance to the international, witness hugo in venezuela. He will destroy his peoples options in an end run to get to the center of world communist party.

achmanijad, is another example of a failed leaders economics being masked by all sorts of belicose political actions, again he's a communist first.....

the threads between these leaders is clear. National issues will always be subverted by the primary allegiance to state socialism, where the so ensconsed plunder everyone else.

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