Olmert to step down.

[Redmau5]

From BBC News;


Israeli PM to quit in two months.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he will stand down two months from now, saying his family is being hurt by corruption allegations against him.

Vowing to prove his innocence, he told reporters he would leave as soon as his Kadima party chooses a new leader at its internal election on 17 September.

Full article at - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7533855.stm

Thoughts?

[Yehuda Stern]

This has been going on for a while, actually. Back when we believed Israel was a 'normal' imperialist state, where the class struggle can develop out of the struggles of the Jewish workers, we predicted that the Olmert government wouldn't last a year - Israeli analysts at the time of the elections said that they are certain that this government will finish its term with no interruption. We were wrong, but only because our assumption was wrong, because in Israel there is no force that can force the government out, as weak as it is. But still, in the long run, it was always clear that the government was problematic from the point of view of the Israeli ruling class, and that it would fall at some point.

The Israeli imperialists haven't been satisfied with this government since it lost the Second War on Lebanon. What's more, the personal corruption of a staggering number of its members and the Mickey Mouse nature of Kadima have created a very unfavorable image of this government in the minds of many Israelis. Despair is the most common state of mind in Israel, followed by anger. The Israeli ruling class no doubt wants to get rid of Olmert and make a cosmetic change in government in order to try and win back public support in case of a war with Iran or with any other force in the region. They're afraid that without such support, many Israelis will be indifferent to the war, and not 'hold the line', i.e. serve as cannon fodder for Israel's war aims. Certainly they also fear that some might come out in opposition to them.

So Olmert's fall is nothing for a revolutionist to cry about, obviously, but it also does not bring us too much joy - because it wasn't a victory of the working class. It does, however, help expose the crisis and rottenness of the Zionist state, and will help revolutionaries opposing it all over the world, including in Israel itself.