NETANYAHU: OLMERT IS UNFIT TO LEAD

Benjamin Netanyahu has given his own press conference about Ehud Olmert (via J6D Newsblog):

Labor chairman Ehud Barak must insist on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's departure following the publication of the Winograd Report on the Second Lebanon War, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday at the party's Tel Aviv headquarters.

Netanyahu said the failures the committee noted in its report and the fact that most of the nation believes that Olmert must resign obligated him to do so.

"Olmert refuses to take responsibility, to demonstrate personal honesty and leadership and to do what most of the public expect him to do," Netanyahu said. "The prime minister is emptying of content the concept of responsibility. The people of Israel know today that they are led by a prime minister who is not qualified or fit to lead them.

Barak knows this and he knows that the public expects him to ensure that this failed leadership does not continue."

Netanyahu accused Olmert of "running from responsibility" after losing a war in which his government had unprecedented national and international support and an unprecedented advantage over its enemy in Israel's longest battle since the War of Independence. He rejected attempts to blame the IDF for the war's failures.

"The IDF warriors fought heroically," Netanyahu said. "An amateur government is responsible for the failure."

That's right, it's the government that let down the army and the public.