Olmert to be Replaced by a Hawk
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced that he will step down in September of this year. That is prematurely, but not too soon; he is, among other things, accused of corruption and he is perceived as one of the weakest Israeli leaders in history. As a result, support for him has dropped significantly; so much even so, that he will be replaced as the leader of his party Kadima (probably by today’s foreign minister Tzipi Livni).
One of the main questions of this change is what it will mean for Israel’s foreign policy with regards to Palestine and, of course, Iran. According to Con Coughlin it’s quite simple; whoever succeeds Olmert will be more hawkish than Olmert. It could very well be that this person will order an Israeli airstrike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Such an airstrike may be necessary from an Israeli perspective, but one wonders what the effects of such a strike will be on the region. Will the so-called Muslim world rally around Iran, a country most of the countries in the ‘Muslim world’ detest due to its radicalism, and if not that, then because it’s Shiite, not Sunni?
Quite likely. This region has a history of joining forces at the moment one of them is attacked by an outsider. Especially, common sense teaches, when that outsider is a Jewish nation-state.
On the other hand, Israel’s options are limited. Allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons is not a possibility. For Israel, Iran has to be stopped. If not by others, then by Israel herself.
The future leader of Kadima, and the future Prime Minister of Israel (whoever that may be), are likely to agree with me on this.
