OneJerusalem.com

Many of you may recall that infamous episode in American history when U.S. Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Calvary regiment were defeated and massacred by Sioux Indians led by Chief Sitting Bull in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. That historical episode, which took place in the summer of 1876, reminds me of another “last stand”, still being played out Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is becoming embroiled in so much political and personal controversy that he very much resembles Custer in many ways.

For one thing, Mr. Olmert directed then IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz to wage war against the Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006, and Gen. Halutz (a real-life stand-in for Gen. Custer) vowed to “blast Lebanon back into the Stone Age”. Well, blast he did, but much of northern Israel got ‘blasted” as well by at least 6,000 Hezbollah fired rockets. Now, with himself under criminal investigation for a number of offenses, the P.M. is desperately pulling at straws to try to work out some kind of deal at the upcoming “peace conference” in Annapolis Maryland. Recent public opinion polls conducted in Israel have resulted in at least 53% of the population believing that Olmert should be suspended from his position as prime minister until the investigations are concluded. Olmert has other ideas, however, and appears to be trying to keep his job by making the impossible become reality in a deal with a Palestinian leader who only represents a portion of the entire Palestinian People.

Of the people polled, at least 65% also believe that Israel shouldn’t withdraw troops from the West Back as they fear that a similar result will happen as did in Gaza following the unilateral pullout in August, 2005. The respondents said that they fear a an even bigger danger, with much of Israel’s most populated areas put in direct line of fire from Kassam and Katyusha rockets. An even larger number of respondents (77%) fear that PA Authority President Mahmud Abbas does not have the strength to win out over a possible take-over in the West Bank by Hamas, as occurred in Gaza.

Olmert appears ready to do whatever he feels necessary to make a good impression at the conference, despite whether or not the result will be good for Israel. What is presently going on in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority is vastly different than the situation prior to the Camp David meeting in July 2000, when then P.M. Ehud Barak offered P.A. Chairman Yasser Arafat nearly all of the Israeli occupied lands, including most of East Jerusalem, on a silver platter. The result of this was not only Arafat’s refusal, but the Second Intifada uprising less than three months later. Though not mentioned in the opinion poll, it’s interesting to note that Ehud Barak is now Israel’s Defense Minister.

What will happen at “Camp David III” remains to be seen. But with the P.A. now split in half and Olmert himself under investigation, the results of the George Bush sponsored Annapolis meetings will most likely not be any more productive than the Bill Clinton sponsored Camp David one.

Meanwhile the “Indians” are tightening their circle around “Custer” and his men and Little Bighorn II will probably end up a similar way.