Olmert Booed and Jeered in Disastrous Speech

Olmert arrived to speak at the Jewish Agency’s MASA meant to connect disaspora Jews with Israel. As he arrived an announcement was made asking the crowd to stand, very few stood, despite repeated pleas for the people to rise for the Prime Minister. As he began speaking he was booed with shouts of 'Boged' 'Traitor' or 'Gush Katif.'

To silence them larger speakers were turned on playing music which drowned out both the hecklers and Olmert's speech as well. In the middle of the speech Olmert suddenly switched to English and attempted to connect himself to Ariel Sharon's legacy. He then finished by advising the heavily Russian crowd not to drink too much. The result was a deathly uncomfortable silence instead of applause. Mattvei Ganapolsky who was in charge of the evening stepped out on stage pleading with the audience to applaud. After several futile attempts Ganapolsky exclaimed, "But it's the head of your government." All the response consisted of a few weak claps and Olmert departed unapplauded.

Ultimately once again this demonstrates that Olmert is merely a political hack lacking the charisma and the people skills of any of his predecesors. There is an unavoidable slimy taint to his his self-serving speeches, his arrogant smirks and oily advances. While the major papers predictably described Olmert's speech as a success, mentioning only a brief interruption by a few hecklers, it was yet another uncomfortable failed interaction between Olmert and the Israeli public. Sharon and Olmert succesfully seized power by destroying the two major political parties from within. Now one of them has joined the living dead and the other is holding on to power by his fingernails. With Bush having essentially already turned down funding, Olmert is set for yet another humiliating public apperance the media will desperately scramble to cover up.