Wow, buyer’s remorse hit me big-time last night, and I haven’t even had the home inspection yet. (Next Thursday.)

I was making a budget and, well, I don’t think I plugged the numbers in exactly right, because I scared the hell out of myself and thought I had no money left over after paying the bills. Today, I’ve come to realize that I probably don’t spend $400 a month on food (I’m single and I cook most of my meals), even factoring in the kosher requirements. And not every month will have a gas bill like last month. In fact, I save money on every Monday holiday, because I don’t have to drive up to NorVA if there’s no staff meeting. There are a few Monday holidays coming up soon, thankfully.

I was also thinking it’s time to sell my Jeep. I love it, but I bought it when gas was a buck and a quarter a gallon. Or maybe even less. For the twenty years prior, I had Ford Escorts and a Datsun 310, all cars that got about 25/30 mpg. Now, instead of dumping my Jeep in a panic, I think I’m going to wait until I’m in my new home and the new budget kicks in. If I have to, my plan is to possibly trade in the Jeep for a car with better mileage, but one that still makes me feel safe driving on the highway every week, like a Rav4. Or maybe buy a cheap used high-mileage vehicle for the trips up to NorVA and keep my Jeep for tooling around Richmond. I really do love my Jeep. I also like the sturdiness factor. It’s pretty solid, and if I do (God forbid) get into a crash, it will protect me far better than one of those little 40 mpg tin cans.

Anyway, there are a ton of things I can do to cut costs. Now that I have more storage space, I can buy those bulk items from Costco. I can make a regular pasta night (I tend to be more carnivorous and like meat for dinner most nights). I already usually bring lunch to work on Mondays instead of ordering out. There are a ton of things you can do to cut costs. There’s also more income: I might finally get ads for my weblog, though I’ve been reluctant to go that way so far. I’m thinking I might get back into freelance proofreading. That’s pretty easy work that I can do at home, and the pay is decent. I wonder if I still have contacts at Tor.

The other thing I realized is that everyone cuts costs for their first home. Most of them do it with two incomes, but hey—I’ve been on my own for a long time now. I think I can handle this, too.

Five weeks left. Only five more weeks of annoying noise, kids who ride their bikes in the middle of the street and get annoyed with you when you beep at them to move over. Five more weeks of maintenance workers ignoring your calls. Five more weeks of hiding my laptop every time I go out for fear of a break-in while I’m gone.

I can’t wait.

With the end of his political career at hand (or perhaps in a half year) it’s hard to remember that there was a time when Ehud Olmert was considered an up and comer in the Likud party. (He did rise to the top, of course. But as Prime Minister he never electrified.)

Back in April 1988 he participated in Nightline’s famous “townhall meeting” between Palestinians and Israelis. The New York Times reviewed the meeting. It recounts perhaps the most dramatic point in the event:

What was inescapable, though, was that on some matters they seemed as united as the Palestinians. After Mr. Erakat’s impassioned speech, Mr. Zucker attacked him. He said, equally impassioned, that Syrians and Jordanians had killed more Palestinians than had Israelis.

The audience of Arabs and Jews in the theater - getting the audience together may have been the act of a sovereign power, too - responded with murmurs and applause. Some of the Jews, obviously, wanted to back up Mr. Zucker.

”I don’t need your applause,” he said curtly to the audience. He also said the Palestinians ”won’t recognize my right to live.” The Palestinians didn’t look at him, although all four Israelis stared intently at them.

In Erakat’s “impassioned” speech he explicitly compared Israel to Nazi Germany. That was too much even for Peace Now advocate Zucker, who said that he might be able to make peace with the others but not with Erakat.

(Previously I blogged about this townhall here. I was a bit premature.)

If there’s been a feeling that Olmert might hold on indefinitely in the face of this investigation, it’s been because we’ve been here before.

In 1996 after Binyamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister, he was stymied in his attempt to form a government as 3 men he had wanted in his cabinet were in legal jeopardy. The NYT reported:

Adding yet another complication to Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu’s tangled efforts to form a coalition, the Attorney General has advised him that two candidates for senior Cabinet positions face legal problems.

The notices coincided with reports that Mr. Netanyahu wanted to replace Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair, who was appointed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. But Mr. Netanyahu denied the reports, and it was unclear whether the legal actions or the leaks came first.

The affected candidates were Jerusalem’s Mayor, Ehud Olmert, one of the most popular members of Mr. Netanyahu’s party, the Likud, and Rafael Eitan, a right-wing former general who allied his small Tsomet Party with the Likud on the promise of a senior Cabinet post.

The other cabinet member whose appointment was stopped by Ben Yair was Yaacov Ne’eman who was eventually acquitted and was appointed Finance Minister later. The charges against Gen. Eitan, if I remember correctly, didn’t even make it to court. And Ehud Olmert was acquitted.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert has charged that former attorney-general Michael Ben-Yair indicted him “because he [Ben-Yair] is a wicked person.”

“I am convinced that Ben-Yair had premeditated ulterior motives, because that is the kind of person he is. Everyone who knows Ben-Yair knows that he acted out of evil intent, to settle personal accounts and pave his own way to political options,” Olmert was quoted telling the Bar Association’s journal, Halishka.

Olmert was acquitted on September 28 by Tel Aviv District Court on charges of campaign finance fraud in connection with the 1988 Knesset election and the 1989 local council elections, when he was the …

I think that Ben-Yair’s efforts were politically, not legally motivated, but given the similarity in his outrage now, to his outrage then, I wonder if maybe Olmert was lucky the first time. Maybe he figured that if he was innocent the first time, he’s innocent now.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Not surprisingly the Washington Post’s coverage of Olmert’s announcement that he would step down after the Kadima primaries, focuses on the peace process.

Palestinian officials reacted cautiously, with Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki saying that Olmert’s decision would not change much, the Associated Press reported. “It’s true that Olmert was enthusiastic about the peace process and he spoke about this process with great attention, but it has not achieved any progress or breakthrough,” Maliki said.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority, whose influence is limited to the West Bank, renewed peace talks at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Md., in November, after a seven-year hiatus. More recently, Israel has renewed indirect peace talks with Syria, with the latest round, mediated by Turkey, concluding Thursday.

Olmert said he would continue to push for peace as long as he is in office, but it appears unlikely that Israel will make any major decisions on concessions to either Syria or the Palestinians until a new government is formed.

Surprisingly though, the reporter failed to mention that Shaul Mofaz is also contending to succeed Olmert as head of Kadima, and mentions only Tzipi Livni as the frontrunner.

At the end of the article Kadima’s viability was questioned:

Gerald Steinberg, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, said the most likely scenario was that Israel would go to new elections. That would pit Livni against former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the opposition Likud Party. Polls show Netanyahu with a 10-point lead over Livni if the elections were held today.

“She will have a hard time convincing voters that she has the necessary security experience,” Steinberg said. “We’re talking about issues like a possible war with Iran or Hamas in Gaza. These are difficult situations.”

Thursday’s announcement could also bode ill for Kadima. The party was founded by former prime minister Ariel Sharon in November 2005 to advocate for a Palestinian state in the West Bank. Olmert was thrust into the leadership of Kadima in January 2006 after Sharon suffered a massive stroke.

“Kadima is a very fragile structure that Sharon put together, and it could well shatter after the primary,” Steinberg said.

Daniel Pipes said the same thing, two years ago.

I was skeptical of Kadima from the very start, dismissing it just one week after it came into existence as an escapist venture that “will (1) fall about as abruptly as it has arisen and (2) leave behind a meager legacy.” If Sharon’s career is now over, so is Kadima’s. He created it, he ran it, he decided its policies, and none else can now control its fissiparous elements. Without Sharon, Kadima’s constituent elements will drift back to their old homes in Labour, Likud, and elsewhere. With a thud, Israeli politics return to normal.

Well that didn’t happen as Olmert proved to be able to keep Kadima afloat. However, I suspect that that’s because he’s an excellent political operator. Losing a half to two thirds of the party’s Knesset representation will likely turn it into a circular firing squad.

While focusing largely on the peace process, the NY Times’s report is a lot more comprehensive than the Washington Post (and doesn’t ignore Mofaz. It also brought this quote:

Mr. Olmert’s drive for diplomatic achievements “might frighten some,” said Abraham Diskin, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. There are Israelis who do not believe in agreements, and others who support the peace effort but do not feel comfortable having their leader negotiate desperately with an eye on the clock. “I belong to that second category,” Mr. Diskin said.

While the NY Times mentions that the PA claims that the announcement is an internal Israeli matter, the doctor of Holocaust denial has thrown an tantrum and declared that he will go home if no one pays attention to him. No one noticed.

Still neither the Times nor the Post seem much concerned with the threats Israel faces from Iran and its proxies, just the peace process, which I suppose is reflective of the American view.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

The AP covered the Palestinian protests against the security barrier in an in-depth story. But there’s something pretty huge missing from this story. In fact, it’s missing from the lead, and from any real description of the protests, until way, way down in the article.

A Palestinian teen tracks Israeli troops with a video camera to document abuse of demonstrators.

A community organizer tours West Bank villages with a PowerPoint presentation teaching the art of creative protest.

These are just two examples of the increasingly savvy methods Palestinians are using to fight Israel’s West Bank separation barrier - a campaign whose danger was driven home this week by the death of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy.

Six years after Israel began building the barrier, Palestinian villagers march almost daily in an attempt to halt construction work that threatens to swallow up thousands more acres of West Bank land. Many protests turn into confrontations between youths hurling rocks and Israeli troops responding with tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and at times live fire.

The aim is to slow construction, draw media attention and ensure that Israeli high court judges hearing challenges to the barrier’s route “will think twice before deciding such a high-profile case,” said Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer representing Palestinian villages.

The art of creative protest—is that what they’re calling stoning these days? Oh, the stoning? You have to read down twenty paragraphs before you find any notice of it whatsoever, or any of the other violent tactics used every single day at the Naalin protests. The AP likes to pretend that the violence doesn’t exist, or is in response to the soldiers responding to the protesters.

“They taught us how to tie ourselves to a tree and blind soldiers with mirrors,” said Abdullah, adding he also learned to surprise soldiers by holding protests in different places to confuse them.

Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a Bilin activist who worked with Bedouin tribesmen who complain of harassment by Jewish settlers, said he begins by discussing resistance.

“I then show them a documentary of Bilin and I pause at the different strategies we have, like stuffing ourselves in barrels and rolling in front of bulldozers,” Abu Rahmeh said.

At one Naalin protest, Palestinian youths rushed down sloping olive groves, whooping as they climbed onto a bulldozer clearing land for the barrier. The startled driver was quickly chased away while other Palestinians lobbed rocks to divert the soldiers, who hurled back sound bombs and tear gas, leaving plumes of acrid smoke.

The bulldozer’s work was held up for a couple of hours - a successful outcome, Palestinians said.

Although Bilin activists say they teach nonviolent forms of protest, they are reluctant to tell other Palestinians not to hurl rocks, saying it’s a matter left for individual villages to decide.

The rocks that they hurl are generally not pebbles. Soldiers are regularly injured by the rocks and protesters. And protesters regularly lie and fake injuries for the camera.

The AP once again presents an extremely biased article. Notice that there are no quotes from Israeli officials at all. There is no other side presented, something that you’d never see in any kind of article about Israel. And the de-emphasis on the fact that these protests turn violent every single time is a huge omission by the AP. These are not peaceful protests. They are calculated, violent protests, and they unfortunately turned deadly several days ago. The IDF is investigating the soldiers’ use of live fire. Who is investigating the protesters’ use of violence day after day after day?

Certainly not the AP. They end their story with some good advice for protesters:

In the meantime, Palestinians are honing their strategies.

“Now I tell the protesters, take a camera, take a camera,” Kanaan said, holding her own.

That’s a great idea. But I have a better one. Israel should impound the cameras and distribute video of the rock-throwing and violence by Palestinians and “internationals” (you just know the ISM creeps are in this up to their ears). Not that it would change the AP anti-Israel bias. But the facts would be out there for the rest of us.

Judging from many of the reactions to PM Olmert’s announcement that he would not run again to lead his party, Kadima, it would possible to say that he’d envy President Bush’s level of popularity.

Yossi Klein Halevi writes (h/t Shalem Center):

Olmert is the embodiment of what has been, for Israel, the year of scandal: a president accused of rape, a finance minister accused of massive embezzlement, a deputy prime minister found guilty of forcing his tongue into the mouth of a young woman soldier. Olmert, two years after assuming office and promising to make Israel a more “fun” place to live, leaves us a nation in shame. He went to war in Lebanon to restore our military deterrence and destroy Hezbollah’s military capacity. Instead, he shattered Israeli self-confidence in our ability to defend ourselves, and empowered Hezbollah as the strongest force in Lebanese politics, with an arsenal three times larger than it possessed before Olmert’s war.

Olmert is the first Israeli leader–perhaps the first democratic leader anywhere –to threaten his own country with destruction if it rejected his policies. Israel, he warned, is “finished” if it didn’t withdraw from the West Bank. Yet in failing to defeat Hamas, he has insured the impossibility of a two-state solution for the foreseeable future, leaving us without a political or military option.

Perhaps Olmert’s greatest offense was in debasing our public discourse with terms like “Talansky’s envelopes” and “Olmert Tours,” diverting our attention from the imminent nuclearization of Iran and the growing power of Hezbollah and Hamas. Instead of focusing on Israel’s survival, we have been preoccupied with the melodrama of Olmert’s survival.

Clearly from his address to the nation Olmert didn’t get how out of touch he was.

In the area of security, we strengthened the IDF - we bolstered its strength and allocated enormous resources it had not received in the past. The North is quiet and does not face an immediate threat. Israel’s deterrent capability has been incomparably bolstered.

Jewish Current Issues though cites an expert who presents a much different view of things:

Also, the Iranians have very cleverly created two proxy armies on Israel’s border, one in the north called Hezbollah, and one in the south called Hamas. It is now estimated that Hezbollah has about 42,000 short-range missiles in rockets. Remember a couple of years ago when Israel went to war briefly with Hezbollah. Maybe the estimate then was about 15,000. They have re-armed, they are armed to the teeth, and Israel knows that if it strikes at Iran’s nuclear facilities, that Hezbollah is going to be able to launch an extraordinarily violent retaliatory strike that will probably depopulate the north of Israel. So regardless of who does it under these scenarios, whether it’s the United States or Israel, Israel is going to be the one that’s going to pay the short term price.

But what does Olmert’s announcement mean? Nothing. At least nothing yet. Ynet describes what will eventually take place. Once the Kadima primary takes place and a new leader is chosen for the party:

Olmert’s resignation will entail the resignation of the government in its entirety. The responsibility for the next move will be on President Shimon Peres. After holding consultations with representatives from the various political factions in the Knesset, Peres will be required to task one of the MKs with establishing a new government.

Most chances are that individual will be the chairman-elect of Kadima, if only because it remains parliament’s largest political party.

In any event, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is also chairman of the Labor party and Olmert’s key coalition ally, cannot be called upon to form a government because he is not an elected member of the Knesset.

Israel Matzav points out that Olmert could hypothetically remain in power (of a caretaker government) until March.

Hashmonean (very fortunately) emerged from hibernation to show what things might be like until new elections are called:

Now, in the running for Kadima Foreign Minister Livni, and former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. Each will try to seize the leadership of the Kadima party and then the unenviable task of trying to construct a coalition for governing. The likelihood of Livni accomplishing this appears to me slim should she be elected leader of Kadima, as she will be forced to rely on the existing coalition partners and as exhibited today, that partnership is a farce in name only. Insane amounts of social legislation, benefits packages & assorted goodies & gimmes totalling billions were put to votes today in the Knesset despite official coalition positions not in support, what resulted was wide passing of these proposals (some in only initial first reads) and the dissolution of the coalition members from official position, in effect the largest non-confidence vote imaginable.

Israelly Cool! notes one more insult.

Meryl comments:

Ever the gentleman, he’s leaving office the same way he stayed: Without taking personal responsibility for any of his actions.

(While the Jerusalem Post praised the announcement and speech, A dignified end, I saw it more the way Meryl did.)

And we’ll give the last word to someone who hasn’t posted in a while, Mere Rhetoric:

You know what’s really awesome? An Israeli political crisis just as the window on stopping Iranian nuclearization is closing.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Yeah, they’re going so well, those indirect talks, that Ahmadinejad has the Syrian Foreign Minister in town and is talking about being BFF. Like, omigawd!

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met on Tuesday evening with visiting Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister, Walid al-Muallem, and pledged he would work to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, to the discontentment of Israel and the United States.

Hosting his guest in Tehran, Ahmadinejad emphasized that he had no intention of letting any outside factor impact the strategic alliance between Iran and Syria.

“The deeper our regional cooperation is, the more beneficial this will be to the nations in the area and the more this will impair our enemies,” he said.

Gee, what enemies could those be?

“All of the US’ plans against Lebanon and Syria have failed,” said Ahmadinejad, adding that America “is in the worst situation it has ever been in.

“Fortunately, Iran and Syria see things as they are and stand by each other, invoking much disappointment from the enemies.”

Ahmadinejad warned that “the Zionist regime and America are interested in making concessions when they are already retreating, therefore we must be alert to the enemies’ ploys.”

And what did the Syrian FM have to say about all of this?

Earlier in the day the Syrian foreign minister declared in his address at the conference that there would never be peace until Israel “returned the occupied territories.”

Uh-huh. He’s got the talking points down. So what is Israel going to do?

Why, keep talking to Syria, of course.

A Turkish official said delegations from Syria and Israel have agreed to hold more indirect peace talks in Turkey.

The official said the delegations ended their fourth round of Turkish-mediated talks in Istanbul on Wednesday and agreed to hold more in the coming months. The Turkish mediators travel between negotiators from both side who stay in separate hotels.

Because they’re working so well so far. Way to go there, Olmert. There’s another pretend feather in your cap you can brag about when you tell Israelis they won’t have Ehud Olmert to kick around anymore.