Ehud Olmert, the previous prime minister of Israel, tried to stick his head into the ongoing UN fiasco by penning an op-ed for the NY Times titled, “Peace Now, or Never.” After reading it your left wondering how Israel ever survived three years under him.
He’s obviously feeling left out and unimportant, so he’s doing a politicians version of jumping up and down and screaming- look at me, look at me! Well Ehud, we’re all looking and it’s not a pretty sight.
He starts off reminding us of his offer he put on the table back in September 2008. He writes, “The parameters of a peace deal are well known and they have already been put on the table. I put them there in September 2008 when I presented a far-reaching offer to Mr. Abbas.” Now wait a second Ehud, if you have the best solution to the ever-lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and you already laid it out 3 years ago, why do you think all of a sudden now it’s going to be accepted by both parties if it was already rejected the first time you tried it?
Anyways, the wizard of peace continues, “According to my offer, the territorial dispute would be solved by establishing a Palestinian state on territory equivalent in size to the pre-1967 West Bank and Gaza Strip with mutually agreed-upon land swaps that take into account the new realities on the ground.” Okay that’s not too crazy, but wait until you read what the wizard of peace wrote next.
“The city of Jerusalem would be shared. Its Jewish areas would be the capital of Israel and its Arab neighborhoods would become the Palestinian capital. Neither side would declare sovereignty over the city’s holy places; they would be administered jointly with the assistance of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United States.”
Are you kidding me? We will be forced to get on our hands and knees and beg some Jordanian official every time we want to daven at the Kosel? Or have some Saudi Arabian official decide who’s holy enough to go to the Kosel?
All I can say is, thank g-d he isn’t the prime minister any more. And judging by the last election where the right wing blocks won the majority, I think most Israelis agree with me.
Yechezkel Gordon is an independent political columnist. He can be contacted at [email protected]
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
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6 Responses
Ehud who? Is this some sort of trivia question? Didn’t he used to have something to do with Israeli politics, years ago? And left in disgrace?????
Yacimovich and Livni are significant. They are opposition leaders. The leaders of the Arab and Hareidi parties are significant. But an ex-politician, accidental and failed prime minister, known more for getting rich while doing a mediocre job of public service – not worth even discussing.
Olmert is just trying to show that he is still someone ‘chashuv’, someone whose opinion still matters, and make everyone forget that he is still under indictment for numerous crimes.
His opinions have ALWAYS been anti-Torah and anti-Israel’s interests. Just look at at the outcome of the Gush Katif expulsion he implemented! Gaza, once the home of the beautiful Gush Katif settlements, and home to about 9,000 Jews with shuls, farms, businesses, yeshivas, etc. is now just a huge terrorist base! Thank you Ehud!
To see olmert’s history of wrong thinking, see this debate with R’Meir Kahane in which the American non-Jewish newsman moderator points out that what R’Kahane is saying makes sense, and what Olmert is saying does not…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S69J2Ews57Y
Oh! I should add that what Olmert says in this interview, i.e. that arab demographics are NOT a real problem for the foreseeable future, IS exactly the OPPOSITE of what HE himself claimed was the reason for the ‘necessity’ for the Gush Katif expulsion!
This guy was/is a DISASTER for Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.
#3– on demographics, in the last few years they’re looked more closely at the figures and realized that the real “demographic” disaster isn’t Arabs (whose birth rate if falling, as is typical in all societies a few generations after infant mortality declines), but rather in the growing number of Orthodox Jews (whose fertility isn’t declining). He can co-exist with the Arabs, but “we” are the demographic threat that is clearly existential to the zionist dream.
#4 akuperma…
You are quite right. In addition to what you mentioned, you have the fact that the majority of new olim are religious, and the majority of yordim are secular (in large measure because these secular ‘post-zionist’ crowd are not at all sure why they are even IN Eretz Yisrael).
Also the huge increase of the religious into not only the IDF in general, but also becoming high ranking officers, and entering into the most elite combat units. Put this all together and the chilonim are truly running scared as they fear that their beloved secular Zionist dream is being is being taken over by Torah Jews.
He can co-exist with the Arabs, but “we” are the demographic threat that is clearly existential to the zionist dream.
The “we’ of the frum torah community can live with the dream of ‘Return to Tzion’ and building a country.