The prime minister is holding a consultation today on the Iranian nuclear issue. The discussion will also include North Korea's provision to the Iranians of missiles and the technology to manufacture them. The working assumption will be that anyone who supplies missiles to Iran is also liable to supply them with nuclear warhead technology, once it has the option of doing so, and perhaps nuclear warheads as well. The participants at today's meeting are also sure to analyze the helplessness of the United States in the face of the dramatic test in East Asia.

The United States, the participants will say, is threatening "stiff sanctions," but, at the same time, is also sounding an all-clear, hinting that it has no intention of attacking North Korea. The United States is up to its neck in Iraq and Afghanistan, and cannot open another front. The U.S. weakness and the fact that even Japan and South Korea reject the use of force against North Korea - thereby accepting its nuclearization - encourages Iran to accelerate its own nuclear project. The "soft" sanctions on Iran, if they are imposed at all, will not bring forth salvation.

Israel's decision's must begin with the assumption that at the end of the day, even if we declare from every possible stage that the Iranian nuclear issue is not our problem but that of the entire world, we, and not the neo-appeasing "world," will have to find a solution to the greatest danger that has faced the Jewish state since its establishment.

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In light of this danger, the question that should be asked in every home is: Does Israel currently have a prime minister, defense minister, foreign minister, cabinet and government that are capable of coping with what can be expected to occur in the not-distant future?

In light of the diplomatic and military results of the Lebanon war, it is difficult - impossible, in fact - to answer this question in the affirmative. Even those closest to the decision-makers admit that Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and especially Amir Peretz displayed problems with performance and judgment in this war - as, of course, did the highest ranks of the army.

Many people, but perhaps not those in the media, are encouraged by the possibility of Yisrael Beiteinu joining the coalition. But even those who do not reject bringing Avigdor Lieberman into the government cannot view him as the person who will make up for the character flaws of the senior ministers - flaws that will prevent them in the future, too, from taking the right decisions, even if they try to learn from their failures in Lebanon.

After all, no one is claiming that Olmert or Peretz did not want to win the war. They simply did not know how. And Lieberman's recent zig-zagging, some of it totally populist, proves that on a basic level, he is in Olmert's league.

The solution to the Iranian threat will not come from ideology, and the issue of whether the government has a wide or a narrow base, therefore, is of secondary importance in shaping a strategy. Of more importance are the wisdom and leadership abilities of those who shape the strategy and oversee its implementation. Those whose decision-making failed so resoundingly in Lebanon can certainly not be depended upon to make better decisions and to perform better in the face of enemies who are thousands of times more dangerous than Hezbollah.

The leadership and, above all, operational ability of the top military leaders is also a cause for concern. If they were unable to defeat Hezbollah despite enormous technological and quantitative superiority, then why should we believe, as they want to persuade us, that "when faced with Syria and Iran, it will be completely different"? As long as the Israel Defense Forces is headed by those who failed on the planning, intelligence, operational and personal levels - the latter, by not taking responsibility for their actions - we should be worried.

One solution is to re-conscript a few successful former commanders, those who have proven themselves on the battlefield and are no longer in the military. True, such a measure could introduce disquiet, not to say shock, into the military system. But a major shock is exactly what it needs. And in light of the inadequacies revealed in the ranks below the General Staff, among the divisional commanders, this shock cannot come from the upper ranks of the IDF as it stands today.

If the proposal offered for the IDF is difficult, it will be that much more difficult to bring into the government quality individuals who are not currently in politics, even with the emergency situation. Olmert, Livni and Peretz will not admit that the job is too big for them and that they want therefore to bring in people from outside the system. But that is exactly the function of public opinion. Surveys are already showing that the public has no faith in the gang that brought about the fiasco in Lebanon. How much more so when it comes to trusting them with the threat at our door.

If these statements are made by means of demonstrations, such as the one that will take place in Jerusalem tonight, there is a chance that trustworthy and talented people will lead us into the existential tests to come.