Remembering Golda thirty years on...

Dear Olmert,

You recently spoke of Golda Meir,thirty years after she was brough to her final resting place.

You completed your remarks by saying:

Golda's leadership was direct, humane and simple – but also strong, authoritative and firm. She served her people with a warm heart and with great love.

You make a great personal testament. What are the results for the nation?

Earlier in your speech, you speak philosophically of mistakes. You seem to justify them. Why are you claiming justification when you say:

"As a rule hindsight is twenty-twenty. Only those who find themselves in charge of decision making at the highest level in times of war, surrounded by suggestions, advisers and experts, know that there is really no one to ask. At the end of the day you find yourself alone with nothing but your judgment and your conscience in the face of a reality which is very complex, dynamic and has many variables. The decision is sometimes as clear as daylight, and sometimes grey, involving misgivings and agony. And whether you decide to act or not, mistakes sometimes happen. Even Napoleon, Churchill and Roosevelt made mistakes."

We should not look to justify mistakes. We should look to create opportunities.

Anonymo(us)