Yossi Klein Halevi in The New Republic on “The Olmert Omerta”:
Olmert, neither founder [like Ben Gurion or Begin] nor hero [like Rabin or Sharon], is the first professional politician to serve as prime minister. Yet, in resisting calls for his resignation, he is insisting on being absolved of the standards for personal accountability in war to which other prime ministers were held.
Golda Meir and her defense minister, Moshe Dayan, were forced from office by an outraged public because of failure in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, while Menachem Begin and his defense minister, Ariel Sharon, were compelled to resign because of failure in the first Lebanon War in 1982.
Olmert, though, sees himself as immune from such archaic values as personal responsibility. Even before the release of the final version of the Winograd report, Olmert had announced that he wouldn’t resign no matter what the commission concluded.
Isabel Kershner reports in the New York Times on the new definition of “responsibility” in Olmert’s government:
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was quoted as telling Kadima ministers that the government-appointed investigative commission’s findings were “harsh,” but that “we need to continue together — that is the meaning of taking responsibility.” Ms. Livni had called on Mr. Olmert to resign last May after the publication of a scathing preliminary report by the same commission.
It would apparently be irresponsible to do what Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon did.
UPDATE: Orit Shochat in “Who Will Trust Him in the Next War?”
The Second Lebanon War, whether it was necessary or not, lacked military and governmental leadership. The enemy was inferior in size and means, the timing was reasonable, the weather was convenient, the public was supportive, the world was supportive, the reason to go to war was justified, and the reserve soldiers reported for duty en masse. In their naivete, they thought they had a leadership that knew how to lead.
UPDATE 2-4-8: Labor Leader Ehud Barak will not resign from Olmert’s government: "If he had quit or called for Olmert to quit, people would have applauded, but it would have been irresponsible," a Barak associate said.