I smell elections in the air

We must be approaching election time, since "tricky Dick" Olmert is changing his tune.

I got a real kick out of Olmert's message to Birthright participants. Though he didn't use the "B" word, he told them to visit hour historical home.

So what do I expect? I believe that these ten days will be exciting and inspiring. I believe that you will start to learn something about yourselves which you didn't know before and which most probably you could not understand before, because you never came to the place where it all started for us as Jews, going back over thousands of years of history. Only by visiting this country, only by going to some of those places, which you heard of, which you read about, which you heard stories about, but you hadn't seen with your own eyes. Only by going to those places, will you start to comprehend the larger framework: The historical base, the background of what it is to be Jewish and what it means that we, all of us, regardless of where we come from, despite the fact that we never met each other before and in some cases, we don't speak the same language, that we can even directly talk to each other. And yet, in some strange and dramatic and fascinating way, we all automatically feel, immediately once we meet that we are one people, that we belong to each other and that we love each other as I am sure that all of you feel. What lies behind it you'll find out. It may take some time. Maybe it will not come automatically and immediately through this visit. Maybe it will take a little longer to penetrate, when you are back where you come from, but it will happen. I promise you it will happen because I know all those who visited before you for the first time and went through a similar experience, and I know what happened to them. What I want to tell you is just one thing, when it does happen and you feel you are ready, I want you to know that we are waiting for you. And when you decide to come, not for a visit, but to come home, we will be waiting for you and hug you and kiss you and love you and help you, because you and we are one and we belong to each other, and there is nothing more that we want and need than to have you, the future of the Jewish people come to where they belong.

It's funny that he couldn't say the word "Bible." He also told them to make aliyah. Basically, it's a pre-Disengagement Olmert speech and reminds me of the Olmert I once thought would be a good Prime Minister for Israel. It harks back to the days when his left wing persona was still in the "closet."

Yesterday there were also stories that Olmert now realizes that unilateral withdrawal isn't a successful policy. Wow, I bet you smell those elections, too! But let's not be naive, it's not that he's against destroying Jewish communities, exiling Jews from their homes or declaring parts of Judea and Samaria Judenrein. He will just find some Arab to sign that these "gestures" may possibly bring "peace."

Olmert is just jockeying for a place closer to the middle. I wish the Israeli public wasn't so gullible. And I'm waiting for someone better to take the reigns away from Olmert.