President Bush encouraged Hamas by his decision to support the Saudi Road Map Plan, and to carve a Palestinian State out of the Holy Land. Possibly he did this because of his family's extensive oil interests.

Prime Minister Sharon encouraged Hamas by unilaterally disengaging from the Jewish Land of Gaza. It is commonly believed that he did this to keep himself and his two sons, Gilad and Omri, out of jail.

Hamas, on the other hand, attributed its victory to the continual terror which it inflicted on Israel: "It is the sacrifices of our martyrs, our suicide bombers, and our terror, which forced the Jews to flee from Gaza. And now, we will go on to liberate the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and our final goal, Jerusalem!" They warned us, didn't they?

And how did the Gaza Jews internalize the lessons of the Gush Katif expulsion? They decided that there should never again be an evacuation where soldiers and settlers shed tears together in a brotherly embrace. Nor should there be a "beautiful picture" of rabbis and army commanders carrying out Sefer Torahs from synagogues together ­ synagogues subsequently burned to the ground by triumphant Arab hordes! All this brotherly love made the Sharon government believe that expulsion of Jews was a piece of cake.

This time Jews were not going to be fooled again. Their brethren from Gush Katif, 10,000 of them, have been robbed of all their possessions, their homes, their farms, their businesses, their schools, their synagogues and their communities. Thousands are still stranded in small hotel rooms, and very few have received any of the promised compensation due them. Most unbelievable of all, those who had mortgages on their now destroyed homes, have had their bank accounts frozen so that the mortgage loans can be automatically repaid. Never mind that the government destroyed their assets ­ as far as the banks are concerned, and they have been backed by the government ­ the former residents must repay the loans. Only a heartless, callous regime could treat their own citizens this way. (By the way, Olmert continually boasts that he is the one who gave Sharon the idea to expel the Jews from Gush Katif.)

After Sharon became incapacitated, Ehud Olmert was designated as the interim Prime Minister. Olmert still refuses to recognize that the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif was an unmitigated disaster, which greatly contributed to the election of Hamas.

Unfortunately, Olmert means to continue Sharon's plan of unilateral disengagement from Jewish land. His openly declared intent is to make Judea and Samaria Judenrein as well.

For starters Olmert chose as his target a small community, Amona, in Samaria. He is intent on proving that he can carry on Sharon's program of expelling Jews from their Land, and therefore decided to destroy Amona with an overwhelming force of more than 6,000 border police and soldiers.

More than 3,000 Jews from all over Israel came to defend their brethren in Samaria. There was unprecedented and deliberate violence on the part of the police and the army against the Amona residents and those who had come to stand with them. Police on horseback rode mercilessly into the ranks of the defenders, clubbing them and causing many injuries. It was virtually a pogrom. At least 150 defenders were injured, amongst them National Union Party Knesset Members Aryeh Eldad, Effie Eitam and Benny Elon. 86 police and soldiers were also injured.

A sixteen year old protester, the son of National Union Director General, Nahi Eyal, was reported to be in critical condition with a fractured skull as a result of having been clubbed by the police.

The National Union Party stated yesterday that the cops' deliberate beatings of Members of
Knesset marks the beginning of the end of Israel's democracy.

Who is the man who is responsible for this carnage?

EHUD OLMERT! He was never elected to be prime minister, and merely heads an interim caretaker government. Olmert amazingly addressed the Arab enemies of Israel as follows: "We are tired of fighting. We are tired of being courageous. We are tired of winning. We are tired of defeating our enemies."

However, Olmert has shown in Amona that he is not tired of fighting Jewish settlers, and that he means to defeat them.

Why does Olmert not have the police act on Court-ordered evictions of thousands of Arabs living in illegally constructed housing all over Israel? There are more than 30,444 such illegal buildings in which Arabs are squatting. Why does Olmert apply the law only for the eviction of Jews?

Why does Olmert send the Israeli Police and Army only against Jewish Citizens, instead of against the terrorists of Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad?

The political radical left leanings of his immediate family may shed some light as to why Olmert is acting in this fashion.

His wife, Aliza, is a Charter Member of "Women In Black", an organization of Arabs and Jews who support Arab takeover of Israel.

His son Shaul belongs to the extreme left group, "Yesh G'vul". He was arrested as a deserter from the Israeli Army. He now lives in New York.

His son Ariel never even served in the Israeli Army. He lives in Paris.

His daughter Donna is a self-professed Lesbian, who is a member of the Machsom Watch. this is a group of women who endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers by deliberately interfering in their work to prevent Arab terrorists from entering Israel at various checkpoints..

His daughter Michal is just an ordinary committed "leftist".

About Ehud Olmert, the man himself. In the words of the author Naomi Ragen: "He is a disaster, a sleazy politician with no vision, skating in the direction Mr. Sharon pulled him, without the sense to reevaluate and go back."

Olmert has established another political left-wing dictatorship. He is just as dangerous
as Ariel Sharon, but perhaps even more so, since he is totally unable to recognize any red lines whatsoever.

A most interesting piece of information about Olmert's early career: Shmuel Tamir, now deceased, who was Olmert's past patron in the FREE CENTER PARTY, noted in his prolific memoirs that Ehud Olmert offered to throw out his own father, Knesset Member Mordechai Olmert, from that Party. This perhaps, more than all else, attests to the nature of the acting prime minister's morals.

Olmert is the prime example of why the Bible tells us not to put our trust in princes.

With Blessings and Love for Israel,

Ruth Matar