Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s political options at home are limited. His breach-of-trust conviction and his pending corruption trial are preventing him from running in next month’s Knesset election. But even if he could run, the fact that the overwhelming majority of Israelis reject his position on the peace process would give him no chance to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So he has done what he and other Israeli political has-beens always do: go to the United States and receive applause from their country’s critics.
To that end, he was in Washington yesterday criticizing his country’s government and saying that Netanyahu’s decision to approve building projects in Jerusalem and its suburb was a “slap in the face” to President Obama. He believes the project to build in the so-called E1 area that connects Maale Adumim with the city was an insult to the president, especially after the United States stood by Israel during the conflict with Gaza and at the United Nations. Olmert is right to say that Obama’s recent support for the alliance has been exemplary and there’s little doubt the administration would have preferred if Israel would have taken its punishment at the UN meekly rather than by showing that it would stick up for its rights. But Olmert’s assertion that the building in the E1 area undermines a two-state solution is belied by his own behavior while in office.
It should be remembered that Olmert offered the Palestinian Authority a state in almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and a share in Jerusalem with the PA to be compensated for Israel’s retention of the settlement blocs with swaps of territory. Among those areas to be held by Israel was the Maale Adumim bloc of suburbs just outside of Jerusalem.
Whenever he is in America earning speaking honorariums from liberal groups, Olmert is always careful to praise PA head Mahmoud Abbas as a genuine partner for peace, even though he didn’t accept Olmert’s proposal just as his predecessor Yasir Arafat rejected Ehud Barak’s offers. Olmert claims that if he had just had a few more months in office, the two could have crafted a deal and brought about peace. But such assertions are either delusional or mendacious.
It is true that Abbas didn’t definitively turn down Olmert’s offer. He was so afraid of the political consequences of making a deal that recognized the legitimacy of a Jewish state that he fled the negotiations without saying anything. That left Olmert free to pretend that if he hadn’t been driven from office by both corruption charges and crushing unpopularity (at one point during his dismal tenure in office, his poll ratings were so low they were within the survey’s margin of error), he could have made a peace that Netanyahu has failed to achieve. But anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the situation knows this is utterly false.
The point here is not just that Olmert’s self-promotion is both deceptive and in bad taste. It is that his own vision of peace with the Palestinians would have left Israel in control of Maale Adumim and the E1 area that is supposedly so controversial that any Jewish building there is both an obstacle to peace and an insult to Obama. Had Abbas not sped away from the talks with Olmert and actually signed the deal he was offered, Israel would have had the right to build in these areas. That leaves us asking how Netanyahu’s decision to treat areas that would be held by Israel even after it surrendered both the Arab areas of Jerusalem and most of the West Bank would somehow prevent an accord.
This “slap” to Obama is much the same as the trumped-up “insult” to Vice President Joe Biden in 2010 when another housing project in a 40-year-old Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem was approved while he was visiting the city. Unless the United States were to take the position that those neighborhoods must also be handed over to the Palestinians, how could building there prevent a deal that would divide the city by the handing over of the predominantly Arab portions of the city?
Few Israelis share Olmert’s high opinion of his own record or his belief in Abbas’s devotion to peace. But their evaluation of the former PM hasn’t penetrated into the thinking of many American Jewish liberals who cling to the notion that Israel can magically produce peace via concessions despite the fact that even Palestinian “moderates” have demonstrated they have no interest in signing a peace deal.
President Obama needs no help from Olmert in finding reasons to dislike Netanyahu, even though he is almost certainly fated to spend the next four years dealing with him. However, for any Israeli to try and exacerbate the situation in order to feather their own nest ought to be beyond the pale. Netanyahu’s decision was no insult to Obama. Olmert is welcome to come here as often as he likes and to bolster his legal defense fund. But it is outrageous for him to use these junkets to try and undermine the delicate relationship between the U.S. and Israel by making misleading statements about the peace process that contradict his own past stands.
Let's be clear on three points. Israel isn't a vassal state. Israel gets nothing from the US in terms of their quid pro qo in the UN. Maaleh Adumim will always be part of Israel forever and ever. And everyone already agrees to this.
Olmert slaps Israelis and fellow Jews in the face, repeatedly, just by being who he is and opening his mouth. n nHe is a walking insult to Jews everywhere. n nHe is the human embodiment of a nauseating stink that will not go away.
Since the PA has decided to "negotiate" from unilaterally achieved positions of strength then Israel logically should respond with the dismantling of the PA, imposition of a civilian authority to take direct and forthright responsibility for the Arab civilian population of Ye"sh/West Bank/administered territories/the eternal state (of mind) of Palestine/whatchamacallit and reset the clock again. No more leaving it up to the Fayad to struggle against Fatah cronies and nepotism in the Fatah bureaucracy. He can even be deputy adjunct if he chooses. n nThen, voila, Abbas, from his lips to God's ears, can wake up to the shiny day in which Israel is, in fact, in occupation of what many in the United Nations deem to be the state of Palestine. n nTough tittie.
Israeli politicians of all stripes need to adopt Senator Arthur Vandenberg's 1947 dictum that “Politics stops at the water’s edge.” Israeli politicians-but especially former Prime Ministers- should always present a united front to other countries, whatever policy disagreements are raging at home. To air partisan disagreements abroad weakens Israel. n nThe most prominent American politician who consistently ignores the Vandenberg principle is Jimmy Carter. It is not the only trait that Olmert shares with Carter, both of whom are failed leaders.
wrong phrase. not a "slap in the face" nmore like a headslap as NCIS' Gibbs gives his team members when they lose focus. nToo bad no one else dares give Obama a metaphorical headslap.
Olmert belongs in jn jail as most Israelis understand. n nIn discussions of Jerusalem we should always point out that Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority since the mid-19th century..
Mayor Emmanuel of Chicago is entitled to his view of Israel’s governmental decision; however politically motivated, fundamentally dishonest, slanted and evil Rahm may appear to be, as usual.
On the other hand Israel has the right to build homes for it’s citizens and it should do so continuously.
I do not see anything in Israel’s approval of housing construction which provokes The US President or his puppets to allege slaps in the face. If anything Rahm and Obama have assured Bibi’s seat by trying to manipulate the Israeli election. This is only the tip of the ice, do we know how much the Emmanuel people are investing in defeating Bibi. It needs to be investigated because the goal is to force Israel into 1949 armistice line borders, “Aushwitz Borders”, whatever. This is the same thing as the destruction of Israel.
Ironically, Obama and company appear guilty of precisely what they accuse Bibi of instigating; interference in a foreign election. I hope this will lead to Obama’s Watergate.
By the way, Obama had no choice but to announce Israel had the right to defend itself against Hamas rockets. He had no choice.