EHUD THE IDIOT

First he mismanaged the war with Hezbollah and now he mismanages the "peace process" with the Palestinians. Ehud Olmert is a complete idiot. Why the Israelis ever elected him Prime Minister is beyond comprehension.

The "road map" to peace as laid out by "The Quartet" of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia specifically prohibits Israel from expanding any of their established settlements in the "occupied" West Bank. During last month's conference at the U.S. Naval Academy, Israel reaffirmed its commitment to The Quartet's peace plan. So, what does the idot do? Last week, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Olmert admitted that Israel is violating the peace plan by continuing to construct new homes in the existing settlements.

Israel has long maintained that it has a right to construct new settlement housing to account for normal population growth. Such construction is explicitly prohibited by the The Quartet's plan. In the interview, Olmert stated: "There is a certain contradiction in this between what we're actually seeing and what we ourselves promised. Obligations are not only to be demanded of others, but they must also be honored by ourselves. So there is a certain problem here."

The problem is not the settlement construction, the problem is Olmert. What in the world was he thinking when he gave that interview? His admission has placed Israel at a distinct disadvantage in any forthcoming peace negotiations. He has forced Israel to restart the negotiations from a defensive position. To the Palestinians and the other Arabs, all having vowed to exterminate the "Zionist entity," that will be seen as a sign of weakness, not of strength.

While many will praise Olmert's openess, his admission flies in the face of history. Most agreements between nations have been violated by one side or the other, if not by both. The United States itself has violated many past accords with other nations, as they have with us. That's just the way of international politics. And none of those parties were so stupid as to admit their transgressions.

The ancient Greeks had Alexander the Great, Tsarist Russia had Peter the Great and the Prussians had Frederick the Great. But Israel - a tiny ship of state awash in a stormy sea of Muslim hatred and hostility - is stuck with Ehud the Idiot at the helm.