Even though Prime Minister Olmert had been ridiculed on more than one occasion for his delayed grasp of reality, it is very difficult not to feel great anger in the wake of his Rosh Hashana interview with Yedioth Ahronoth.
In fact, this interview is truly infuriating. A few moments before he departs the political stage, two and a half years after he officially assumed his post, and after 30 months where he did nothing to advance all the beautiful notions he discussed in the interview, suddenly he has been instilled with wisdom and courage. All of a sudden, he speaks up in order to warn us and issue predications, advice and consult, outline a path, and discover “new” ideas, which in fact have been known for ages.
Had we been able to only accuse him of complete diplomatic blindness and a special talent for failing to grasp reality around him, this would be one thing. We may have been able to forgive that. However, the prime minister himself praises himself for saying “five years ago already,” (in an interview with Nahum Barnea,) that time is running out, and that we must understand this, and that if we fail to grasp this, heaven forbid…
Five years have passed since then, yet all those sensational insights remained tucked away in the drawer. Apparently, he saved them for his final interview. Yet he did nothing to realize them, advance them, or promote them. The opposite is true: The occupation became more deeply entrenched, wickedness flourished, the malignant settlement “enterprise” worked full steam, and the disease that is prompting the State of Israel’s demise became worse.
Yet only now, when it is clear to both us and him that he cannot do anything, he decided to become a hero. Only now, when his bags are already packed, the outgoing prime minister seeks to depart with a bang. Indeed, his record in terms of deeds is quite poor, but when it comes to words, as usual, there’s great richness there.
And as usual, all of this belated wisdom comes with a significant degree of boasting: “No Israeli leader before me has said what I’m saying now; we need to withdraw from almost all the territories.”
Olmert heard nothing
Ehud Olmert obviously has a very high opinion of himself. Figures such as David Ben-Gurion, Pinchas Sapir, Uri Avneri, Yossi Sarid, and Yitzhak Rabin (and this is a very partial list) are not considered leaders in the book of Olmert the leader. Their views and words were apparently never formulated or uttered. In any case, Olmert heard nothing.
The fact that the abovementioned figures, and tens of thousands of others, discovered all these truths a day after the 1967 defeat makes no difference to him: He’s the only one.
Yet even though it appears to Mr. Olmert that he broke all records of courage with his words, it would be good to remind him that he did not even utter one tiny word about the most important and scariest issue, which has intimidated all of Israel’s leaders for decades now. Not even one word about the most terrible threat jeopardizing the State of Israel, its sanity, character, existence, and even its right to exist: National-Orthodox-messianic fascism. The one that was taken out of the bottle 40 years ago and ever since then has been dragging the entire country to the edge of the abyss and to great corruption. It appears that Olmert still fears them.
But that’s not a big deal. Perhaps Tzipi Livni will be talking about that; in her farewell interview.
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