Despite mass public protests, allegations of everything from corruption to failure to defend the country in war, and calls from high-level politicians within his own party to resign, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert not only is refusing to step down, but survived no-confidence votes in Israel’s parliament earlier this month.

It’s not that Olmert has a strong enough support base to stay in office. His public approval ratings stand at around 2 to 3 percent, with more than two thirds wanting him to resign immediately. It is simply a matter of there being no viable replacement for him. This could portend the collapse of his party, Kadima, and the fall of the current coalition government.

The release at the end of April of the interim report on Israel’s war against Hezbollah last year, the Winograd report, has sparked outrage across the nation. Prime Minister Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz have borne the brunt of public anger. (Though the report also details the manifold failures on the part of Israeli leadership dating back to decisions made by former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon and their policies of pullback and restraint.) With variations of the word failure appearing over 167 times to describe Israel’s war in Lebanon, the report basically concludes that Olmert and his cohorts failed in their wartime decision-making. “The report is scathing,” wrote Jeff Jacoby for the Boston Globe. “It documents in damning detail the bungling, the willful blindness, and the almost criminal ill-preparedness that pervaded the highest levels of Israel’s government during the war and the years leading up to it” (May 9).

The full post-war report will be published later this summer, ensuring the political fallout will not end anytime soon.

Olmert has thus far survived as leader of his party, but it appears Israeli Defense Minister Peretz will soon be gone. As leader of Kadima’s coalition partner, the Labor Party, Peretz faces a party leadership election on May 28.

Hence, the two coalition parties forming the ruling government are both in the midst of leadership crises. What’s more, Labor is threatening to pull out of the coalition.

To say Israeli politics is in disarray would be a severe understatement. Confusion and chaos reign, with few seeing a way forward.

The Israeli government is besieged by mammoth problems. After being in power not much more than 12 months, things could not look much worse for Olmert. He heads a government in which top officials, including himself, are facing charges of not only ineptitude in the war in Lebanon, but also rape, wire-tapping, theft, money laundering, financial mismanagement, abuse of power, and bribery. Israel currently has no finance minister, who suspended himself due to a corruption investigation, and no president, who is under police investigation for sexual harassment and corruption.

“Today, Israel is like a rudderless ship,” wrote Ariel Cohen for the Washington Times (May 4). “This is the worst government crisis in the 59-year history of the reborn state”—which is indeed saying something, considering Israel’s political history. In 59 years, Israel has had 31 governments—and only two have completed their terms.

The leadership void in Kadima, Israel’s “third way” party founded only a year and a half ago by Ariel Sharon, could well lead to its disintegration if its members flee to their old parties. The disarray in Kadima reflects the failure of the pragmatic policies the party was founded upon such as unilateral withdrawal from Palestinian territories. Not only have such policies been a disaster on the ground, but they have also been a failure politically. Kadima was founded, in a sense, as a “last hope” for Israel. That hope has turned out to be futile.

Conditions now favor a comeback of the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party. Once again, it is likely the Israeli political pendulum will swing to the right.

In the meantime, Israel’s enemies—Hezbollah and Hamas, and their state benefactors—will take advantage of the current political chaos that is hamstringing the Israeli government. When and if a new government, with less terrorist-friendly policies, comes to power, those enemies will be better equipped and motivated to confront it.

However, chances are—and Bible prophecy indicates—that Israel will not give up without a fight.

Of late, leading politicians have been talking about extending the policy of unilaterally turning over territory to the Palestinians to include parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Bible prophecy does in fact foretell the Arabs taking over half of Jerusalem—but, by force. The scene could be set for this if Kadima falls apart and Likud makes political ground out of the current government crisis. Likud’s conservative stance would not likely include handing east Jerusalem to the Palestinians on a platter.

The editor in chief of the Trumpet magazine recorded a Key of David program in January last year detailing a prophecy in Zechariah 14:2. Based on that prophecy, Gerald Flurry stated that Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party could make a comeback and win the Israeli elections. Olmert hung on in the elections last March, but, just over a year later, we may be seeing the conditions becoming extant that will bring Netanyahu’s Likud party to power.

A conservative leadership will not bring hope to Israel, however. Israel may fight for its survival a little longer—but therein does not lie any safety. In fact, it could be that this moment of political turmoil in Israel presents itself as an opportunity for Israel’s enemies to strike. It is certainly worth keeping our eyes on the embattled Jewish state this summer: The nation should be bracing itself for another round of violence—perhaps on a scale far worse than what it endured only a summer ago.

But in the longer term, the news for this little nation is good. Read “There Is Hope for Israel!” for more on the future Israel has to look forward to.