Stop the clock!

The 48 hour countdown I set in motion yesterday (for the start of a ground offensive in Gaza) seems to have, thankfully, ground to a halt for the time being.

Why?   Did Olmert come to his senses?

No, our Prime Minister hasn't gotten any smarter since yesterday morning.  He just managed to use the old Jedi mind trick on Shas Chairman Eli Yishai to convince him there is no reason to bolt from the coalition since [~waves hand in front of glassy-eyed victim~] there are no negotiations - secret or otherwise - being held over the fate of Jerusalem!

Truth be told, I'm not terribly surprised at this turn of events.  Anyone who has small children knows that it isn't all that hard to convince someone of something that they already want very badly to believe. 

Yishai painted himself into a corner with his pledge to resign as soon as Jerusalem came up for discussion and was desperately looking for a way out.  So, rather than demand assurances from Olmert and Livni that Jerusalem was not now -NOR WOULD IT EVER BE -on the table, he settled for an easy lie (or at best, half-truth).

Let's see if we can deconstruct the house of cards within which Mr. Yishai has taken refuge:

a.  The Shas party is adamantly opposed to the division of Jerusalem.

b.  Shas has threatened to leave the government the instant the division of Jerusalem is placed on the table.

c.  There is compelling, independently-corroborated, evidence to indicate that secret negations on Jerusalem's fate are already well underway.

d.  Both Olmert and Livni have made it clear that Jerusalem WILL BE NEGOTIATED, although they claim it will be left for last.

e.  Yishai hears the words "We are not negotiating over Jerusalem right now", and grabs this lifeline Olmert and Livni have thrown him saying, "OK, You say you aren't negotiating Jerusalem right now... that's good enough for me!"

Do you see the logical problem with his position? 

If Eli Yishai says he won't keep the Shas party in a government that negotiates over the fate of Jerusalem... and the current government's leaders are perfectly open about the fact that they have started a process that will absolutely, positively lead to negotiations over Jerusalem... how can he justify staying? 

It's like someone sitting high up in a tree watching someone saw through the branch on which he's sitting... all the while telling himself that the person wouldn't dare saw all the way through.  But the person continues to saw and tells the ambiguous truth, that so long as he is sawing the branch will still be there.  Yet the person out on the limb stubbornly refuses to see that at the end of the process the limb  - and he - will fall.

There is no sane rationale for remaining in the tree, or in the coalition, under such circumstances! 

Jerusalem is going to be negotiated!  Heck, we have only the word of Olmert and Livni that it isn't already being discussed!  Shas is going to eventually have to leave the government!  Every day that the Olmert government remains propped up the population of Israel's periphery communities remains in peril!  Why would Shas continue to prop up a government that cares more about preventing a potential humanitarian crisis among Gaza's population than for ending an existing humanitarian crisis among its own citizens?!

The answer is ... I don't know.  I honestly don't understand it!!!

Don't get me wrong.  I am pleased as punch that we won't be sending large numbers of our soldiers into harms way in order to keep Olmert's coalition from imploding.  But the reason for this stay of execution is a bit difficult for a thinking person to swallow!

[I seem to have used up my yearly allotment of exclamation pints with this post]