Caretaker Government

In “Thanks To Olmert, Mideast ‘Solutions’ Come Full Circle” (Between The Lines, Oct. 10), Gary Rosenblatt observes that “Olmert is still the prime minister and has the legal right to continue to pursue talks with Syria and continue negotiations with the Palestinians.”
In democracies, caretaker prime ministers do not even appoint new ministers and heads of department, let alone initiate new policies and diplomatic initiatives — especially when the public opposes them, as the Israel public does here: a March 2008 Maagar Mochot poll demonstrates that 61 percent of Israelis believe that signing a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority, even one that divides Jerusalem, would bring neither peace (69 percent) nor an end to Palestinian claims (61 percent). A May 2007 Dahaf Institute poll for the Knesset Channel found 68 percent of Israelis oppose withdrawing from the Golan Heights and that 53 percent oppose withdrawals from Judea and Samaria, in both cases, even in return for a peace agreement.
The Israeli view is based on reality: an An-Najah University poll only last month showed that 54.3 percent of Palestinians reject the idea of a Palestinian state in peace with a neighboring Israel.  Neither democratic practice, Israeli opinion nor Palestinian views lend support to the idea that setting up a Palestinian state in order to produce peace is a policy Olmert should be advancing.

National President Zionist Organization of America
Philadelphia