Halutz Resigns, It’s About Time

As they say in Hebrew: Higia zman (“it’s about time”). Or as a droll Haaretz commenter, SD wrote: “He felt a bump.” This alludes to Halutz’s famously cruel statement that he felt no pangs of conscience when he dropped a bomb on a Palestinian militant. Rather, he said, he felt only a “slight bump” in the wings of the plane.

And as Tom Lehrer used to sing: “Who’s next?”

Halutz has finally bowed to the almost inevitable and resigned as IDF chief of staff. He said he would resign if the Winograd Commission found him guilt of malfeasance. Though the Commission hasn’t yet released its findings, I’m sure he has some idea of what it will say. He found it more convenient to remove himself before the other shoe dropped so to speak.

Yesh Gvul poster: “Fly Halutz home–return Tzahal to the code of military conduct” They just got their wish

Interesting that Olmert apparently tried to talk him out of it:

Ehud Olmert’s bureau said the prime minister knew ahead of time of Halutz’ intention to resign, and had asked him reconsider.

Now, why would that be? Because he loved the man so? Hardly. Once one of the Top Three Incompetents (Halutz, Olmert and Peretz) goes, there is much more pressure on the other two to go as well. And make no mistake, there is already tremendous pressure on Olmert to do so. MKs began clamoring today for it following an announcement of a criminal inquiry into Olmert’s involvement in the privatization of Bank Leumi. Haaretz notes that two separate inquiries are also anticipated into potential Olmert financial chicanery. If Winograd criticizes Olmert strongly enough, the pressure only mounts.