Posted on 10/04/2008 3:30:57 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Ehud Olmert, Israel’s soon to be ex-prime minister, voiced some startling truths this week. He said that in exchange for peace, Israel should withdraw from “almost all” of the West Bank and share its capital city, Jerusalem, with the Palestinians. He also said that as part of a negotiated peace deal with Syria, Israel should be ready to give up the Golan Heights.
It’s frustrating that Mr. Olmert, who is stepping down as prime minister after being accused of corruption, waited so long to say these things. And it is tragic that he did not do more to act on those beliefs when he had real power.
His statements in a farewell interview with the newspaper Yediot Ahronoth were unlike anything any Israeli political leader had dared to say — at least publicly — before. He also dismissed as “megalomania” any suggestion that Israel should act by itself to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.
There always has been far too wide a gap between Mr. Olmert’s belief that Israel’s security and demographic survival depends on a two-state solution and what he has been willing to do to get such a deal. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, also has not shown nearly enough political courage. The result is that while the two men have been negotiating since the American-led Annapolis peace conference last fall, very little progress has been made.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I wish Sarah Palin were more knowledgable. But she understands some basic things that the NYT is willfully blind to:
"We shouldn't second guess Israel's security efforts because we cannot ever afford to send a message that we would allow a second Holocaust," Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin said in a television interview for CBS.
"Israel has got to have the opportunity and the ability to protect itself. They are our closest ally in the Mideast. We need them. They need us. And we shouldn't second guess their efforts," the Alaska governor added.
"It is obvious to me who the good guys are in this one and who the bad guys are. The bad guys are the ones who say Israel is a stinking corpse and should be wiped off the face of the earth," Palin explained.
"That's not a good guy who is saying that. Now, one who would seek to protect the good guys in this, the leaders of Israel and her friends, her allies, including the United States, in my world, those are the good guys," she said.
Obama does not talk or think like this. He is more "nuanced", to use one of the Times' favorite words. A good article on his views on Israel is at http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/barack_obama_and_israel.html .
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Probably he’s playing to the galleries, hoping that the leftist Israeli judges will go easy on him because he’s such a good guy.
...like Illinois' George Ryan's tossing the sentences of all death rows inmates to the wind. Georgie's now in prison, but he may have helped to cut his sentence from a deserved 20+ (life for him) down to 6.5 years.
HF
hmmmm - so Condi has been going over there to talk Olmert OUT of giving away the farm?
Olmert disgraced himself in mismanaging the Lebanon War, especially when he delayed the requisite ground attack which would have won the war until the moment the UN began meeting and then cut it off after more than 100 soldiers had been killed for no reason. He had their blood on his hands because either the attack had to be fought to the conclusion or not launched. He refused to resign and only his crooked dealings finally did him in. The guy has no shame and no principles. The New York Times is following the Arab line in backing this guy, who is not only a lame duck but a cooked goose. But then the New York Times used to bury the stories on the Holocaust on inside pages as not important, that’s how much they care about the fate of Jews. Livni if she forms the government has no support for total capitulation to the Arabs, especially on Jerusalem, and she can’t win the next election adopting that platform.
I agree. If he had said these things earlier, maybe the Isaelis would have kicked his dumb ass out earlier.
Olmert is Anti-Torah and faithless. G-d has one mandate concerning Israel: The tolatity of the Biblical Land belongs Forever to the Jewish People. Period. The full force and power of the United States should be used to make this mandate a reality, even if it means moving every anti-Israel Muslim or Arab out of Israel. Those who stay must submit to and support the Government and people of Israel. If not, they can GET OUT and go live in the homes of the millions of Jews and Christians who were murdered, butchered or expelled from those wonderful Arab and Muslim nations run by their brothers.
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