Absurd !

The recent attacks by Hamas in the South and Hezbullah in the North have clearly come about because of one thing: their sense that Israel has gone soft and can be defeated.

No clearer sign of weakness and invitation to attack could have been sent to Iran, Hezbullah, Syria and Hamas than Olmert’s words to a Washington gathering in June last year when he said: “We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies …”.

Added to that was Israel’s tacit tolerance of a ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’ building up on its doorstep and Olmert’s endless prattle about dismantling settlements and ceding large parts of the so-called West Bank.

Any normal leader would have thanked G-d for the wake-up call received this month.

Not Olmert.

For even as our soldiers fall on the slopes of the Bekaa … even as residents of our northern towns and cities huddle in shelters … even as the parents and spouses of our captured soldiers weep in the night … Olmert still talks of the further expulsion of Jews from Judea and Samaria and the ceding of these - our biblical lands – to Arabs whose lust for our total annihilation has never diminished.

To the contrary, the lust is stronger than ever! The Jewish blood they have scented from dozens of unpunished suicide bombings, the encouragement they have received from the unreciprocated release of thousands of prisoners and the weakness they sense from surrenders by Barak, Sharon and now promised by Olmert - even in battle - how could this do anything other than embolden our enemies to make the final push?

That Olmert should have so absurdly promoted his next phase of surrender in the thick of this mortal conflict seems ludicrous. That he should have made this speech in Nitzan, before hundreds of Gush Katif evacuees, amounts to as much chutzpah as rank stupidity.

It truly beggars belief!