Dumber Than a Box of Bagels
I was incredulous this week as I read a piece in the Jerusalem Post about a crackpot idea being proposed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and the nephew of the serial killer, Yasser Arafat.
The article title, “Ehud Olmert and Arafat’s nephew sign agreement to achieve peace, partition Jerusalem – report,” is stupefying in the extreme. I read it and kept thinking there would be a Spoof notice somewhere. But in fact, Olmert and Nasser al-Qudwa are seriously claiming that they have worked out a framework agreement to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. Never mind the fact that Olmert left office in disgrace (and went to prison), and al-Qudwa is a nobody attached to one of history’s most notorious killers.
Olmert has a very interesting resume. He served as mayor of Jerusalem for 10 years; I met him with David Lewis, the great Bible prophecy teacher, in Jerusalem in 1998. In those days Olmert was known as a hawk.
He later moved to the center when he saw an opportunity to be Ariel Sharon’s deputy in the newly formed Kadima Party. Kadima was formed when Likud wouldn’t back Sharon’s disengagement plan from Gaza. I personally believe Sharon was pressured by the Americans (Bush) and given guarantees that Western diplomats never intended to keep. It led of course to the disastrous moments we find ourselves in now, after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007.
When Sharon suffered a stroke in 2006, Olmert stepped in as prime minister. He served until 2009. He later was convicted of bribery charges and served 16 months in prison.
It’s hard to know what led him to move from a hawk to dove, but he did. Before leaving office, he offered Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO 93 percent of the West Bank and Jerusalem as a capitol. As usual, the Palestinians shot themselves in the foot and refused.
Olmert’s new plan is bizarre. First, his political career has been over for 15 years. It’s not coming back. Second, his approval rating was about 3 percent when he left office and that hasn’t improved, either. He seems to be a conflicted man. (An interesting aside, he used to have a house on 29 November Street in Jerusalem, the street name of course referring to the November 29, 1947 vote for a partition of Palestine. A momentous moment in Jewish history. It led six months later to the establishment of the State of Israel. Yet exactly 60 years later, Olmert made a statement from weakness.
On 29 November 2007, he warned of the end of Israel in case a two-state solution is not eventually found for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The Two-State Solution of course is the Trojan Horse the world has tried to force on Israel for 30 years. It is delusional.
In his latest weird idea, Olmert is proposing that his 2006 plan be dusted-off, which relies very heavily on Arab cooperation. How can a man so experienced, who has led his country in the past, really believe the Arabs will be honest?
According to the Post:
“They also agreed to the creation of a Temporary Arab Security Presence to be deployed to Gaza, which would coordinate with the IDF and a new Palestinian security force established by the Council of Commissioners.
“The Temporary Arab Security Presence’s mandate will be to prevent attacks from Gaza into Israel.
“They also raised the possibility of international forces being stationed along the river Jordan.”
This is all madness. Netanyahu has the opposite view. Israel will be in Gaza, controlling the Philadelphia Corridor, for years. Trusting the Arabs to quell violence brought by Hamas—the demonic group supported by the Palestinians themselves—is sheer madness. Israel right now has an historic window of opportunity to change the equation in the Middle East. Israel no longer has to bow to American pressure, with the American Regime in chaos. Netanyahu is now making bold and decisive moves to finish-off Hezbollah. Hamas has been destroyed. Iran is literally afraid of Israel.
It is remarkable that Israel has managed as well as they have in Gaza, given the evil pressure placed on them by Biden and Harris. It is hard to understand what Ehud Olmert is thinking.
I met him a second time, in 2005, when he was Deputy Prime Minister. I was in Jerusalem to talk to Olmert about a book manuscript he’d written. When I was ushered into his office, the cigar smoke was so thick I could barely seem him initially. Powerful men love their power. He is probably no different than any other. The ascent to political power leads to hubris, usually, and in the case of Ehud Olmert, it leads to fatal mistakes.
He is the Kamala Harris of Israel.
A sad end to a once-promising career.