Olmert like Netanayu was/is a very wealthy man , he has writen a book or three , does after dinner speeches and writes for various newspapers .

He was he PM back in the day of the war with Hezbollah , he was clueless what to do , his defense minister had less idea and the Chief of Staff less again , I predicted then the night of the long knives would occur and all have disappeared from view only Olmert went to nick .

Our then Defense Minister was famously photographed looking down the wrong end of a pair of Binoculars .

I shudder at the utter stupidity of those men

BM

Yet they were in positions of power. Something wrong with the system?

yes but it is unlikely to change any time soon , the Chief of Staff has to be Infantry / Tanks not airforce and the DM has to have army experience also the PM has to know what to do .

The war was run by Washington / Rice , it left those in the field seething with rage as opportunities were being missed and there was no end game being given no goals .

BM

I hear you.  Is the US still that influential?

in the UK, our BoJo is a classic case of what is wrong with our present system.He has a large majority of muppets who will follow his lead anywhere with no legal scrutiny.

Late reply sorry.

Rice was the stick that broke the camels back , she wanted an ethical war and promoted her vision to the previously mentioned people she lost the respect of most and she damaged the the relationship , you can see this as and when Israel believes the US is going to try to do a deal with Iran which does not cover our strategic concerns 

BM

Our system is that majorities rule.  You may not support Johnson, but you should support the system and look forward to his replacement when the wind changes direction.

An 'ethical' war. Hmmmm. 

All well and good if you can get others to help but you can really only rely on people who share your motivation. 

The concept she presented and pressed for was based on the views of various members of the State Department and as we would learn much later the Pentagon had a totally different view 

One of the lessons Israel learnt even before Rice was that there is an underlying conflict between the Pentagon and the State Dept and each president virtually rotates between the two - Trump was a Penatagon Biden will be State Dept , Obama was strictly State Department as he had little real time for the Pentagon believing there was a political scientific resolution to all affairs no matter how dire ..

BM

That's interesting. I've never noticed that some Presidents favour the State Dept and others the Pentagon.