The country is buzzing

The country is buzzing. I just stepped out of my office for a bit to go over to our factory to do some work there. Everybody is screaming at each other. Everyone is upset. Everyone is frustrated.

People are screaming that the Defense Minister is a stupid Moroccan with no experience other than shutting down the country in wasteful strikes. Another is screaming that Olmert is an inexperienced Prime Minister who can’t do anything, the least because his wife and kids are extreme left wing fanatics, so how can he be expected to do anything. Another is screaming about the Arabs and what should be done to them. Another is screaming about the weak Israelis who just want to go shopping and go on vacation and how nobody cares what is going on.

PM Olmert is being put through a test of fire. I do not envy him or the position he is in. I do not know why people voted for him. Everybody knew his positions and lack of experience. The only suggestion I have is that it must be the spin involved in the whole disengagement and election process. Former Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon last week spoke out for the first time since the disengagement and said the whole thing had been concocted and planned by spin doctors rather than security people to solve a personal problem of Sharon’s. Obviously the spin was successful and despite the fact that Olmert lost much of Sharon’s support, he retained enough of it because of his spin doctors on the election campaign that he was able to come to victory, albeit weaker than he wanted. Now people are starting to see that they were wrong and Olmert is not the right person for the job. All he knows how to do is continue to talk about his disengagement/convergence plan and say it is still going to happen, despite everything falling down around his ears like a house of cards. His biggest “supporters” who followed him to Kadima have spoken out this week against his plan, yet he still talks like it is written in stone and that is the way it is.

I just heard Olmert yet again on the radio saying something inane like Israel knows how to respond and will respond in the right time and place. We have overcome bigger hurdles and we know how to overcome this. Olmert: people are happy you know how to overcome it, now we want to see you overcome it. Stop talking about how much you know, and let’s see you actually do something.

People are upset. Something is going to happen. People will not let the situation to continue as is.