Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an address at Hebrew University Monday night, ” A foolish Prime Minister doesn’t make peace, and a prime minister who makes peace is no fool…. Nothing more important than a peace agreement between us and the Palestinians”
In a typically immodest speech, he also boasted that Syrian President Bassar al-Assad ”knows he missed the opportunity of his life when he didn’t grab my offer.”
Olmert, already convicted one criminal charge, acquitted on two others and still facing open indictments, loves to talk, especially when he gets paid five and even six figures – in dollars, not shekels – for standing at the podium for a few minutes and opening his mouth.
He was given the opportunity Monday by Hebrew University to mark the publication of a book by a Hebrew U. professor and doctor of, what else, the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace.
Olmert opined, “There is nothing more important, nothing that will change our lives so substantially, and nothing that could negatively impact our lives, more than the existence or absence of a peace agreement between us and the Palestinians, as soon as possible. The benefit for the State of Israel would be greater than on any other issue, and in all other areas combined, in the foreseeable future.
“Peace with the Palestinians would alter the relations between Israel and most Muslim countries, and turn the Middle East into a more stable, powerful, rich and successful region.”
Olmert insisted, “It’s possible to reach peace now, a peace that will secure Israel’s security, Jewishness and Zionism, the security of its residents, and its democratic nature, and also establish a Palestinian state as the national homeland of the Palestinian people. It’s possible to do that; you just need to reach decisions. That’s the job of leaders.”
Isn’t easy to be prime minister when you aren’t one anymore?
Let’s slow down a bit and understand Olmert. He offered Abbas almost all of land he wanted, but not all of it, and the Palestinian Authority refused it. Now we have Binyamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister and he has offered Abbas less of what he wants. So if Olmert is implying that Netanyahu is a fool for not signing a peace pact with Abbas, what does that make Olmert?
Since “a foolish Prime Minister doesn’t make peace,” you have the answer.
If the ” absence of a peace agreement between us and the Palestinians” is such a bad thing, why didn’t Olmert just go one step further and give Abbas 100 percent of what he wants, as the Palestinian Authority now demands of Netanyahu?
What has changed? One thing for sure is that Olmert has not changed.
His comments have about as much substance as a college sophomore, unless Olmert is secretly acting as Netanyahu’s negotiator with the Palestinian Authority.
Olmert imaginary peace agreement that “will secure Israel’s security, Jewishness and Zionism, the security of its residents, and its democratic nature” has no content, no conditions, no limits and no meaning. Olmert also is trying to establish the pro-Arab agenda as a fact by referring to a Palestinian state “as the national homeland of the Palestinian people.”
He is behind on his reading. The Palestinian Authority has clearly stated the “Palestinian homeland” includes every inch of land in Israel where an Arab ever set foot. Yafo (Jaffa), Akko (Acre) and Tsfat (Safed) are just some of the cities Abbas wants to conquer by flooding them with foreign Arabs who would jump at chance to get out of the UNRWA prisons in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and elsewhere.