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‘WE ARE VERY CLOSE TO AN ERUPTION TAKING PLACE IN ISRAEL’  
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Ehud Olmert
February 28, 2024
Haaretz
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_ Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on this week's Haaretz Podcast
says for Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Netanyahu, Gaza is only the beginning
- they are aiming for "Armageddon, that will make it possible to expel
many of the Palestinians in the West Bank." _

In a recent op-ed in Haaretz, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right ministers
of knowingly steering Israel into an all-out war., (Photo credit:
Meged Gozani / Haaretz)

 

In a recent op-ed in Haaretz, former Prime Minister EHUD
OLMERT accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right
ministers of knowingly steering Israel into an all-out war.
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During a wide-ranging conversation on this week's Haaretz Podcast,
Olmert tells host Allison Kaplan Sommer that for Ben-Gvir, Smotrich
and Netanyahu, Gaza is only the beginning - they are aiming for
"Armageddon, that will make it possible to expel many of the
Palestinians in the West Bank."

He mentions the government minister's backing of violent groups of
settlers, who are beating Palestinians and looting their homes, and
goes as far as saying, "A great majority of Palestinians killed in the
West Bank [since October 7] were killed not necessarily for good
reasons, and not by qualified Israeli security forces, but by
volunteers - such as the hilltop youth."

Olmert, who a year and a half ago lost a defamation suit
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against him by the Netanyahu family for asserting they were mentally
ill, doesn't seem deterred from using strong language to describe the
prime minister, whose behavior, he says, points to "a nervous
breakdown."

"A nervous breakdown is the only way to interpret the way he behaves,"
he says on the podcast. "I don't know that he suffered a nervous
breakdown - I don't have any medical evidence to prove this," says
Olmert, "but I have brains. I have eyes. I understand what I see. And
what I see is the behavior of someone who has gone through a dramatic
nervous breakdown. And most likely, he still hasn't recovered from
it."

According to Olmert, the current government is interested in
continuing the conflict and avoiding a long-term cease-fire, and for
that reason, it is delaying a hostage deal. Olmert strongly supports
a deal
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even at the cost of painful concessions.

Asked why he supports a deal - given the fact that while he was Prime
Minister, he refused to exchange Hamas prisoners for the release of
Gilad Shalit, Olmert says civilian hostages are not the same as
soldiers. "When it comes to soldiers in the security forces, under
certain circumstances, when the need arises, we have the right to send
them to fight, even at the risk of them not coming back," he says,
"but the hostages that were abducted and are now waiting more than 142
days … are not soldiers. They are Israeli citizens ... and we, the
state of Israel, deserted them. We were not there to defend them, and
we have no right now to desert them - not to make every possible
effort at any cost to bring them back."

"Nothing would have happened on October 7," Olmert says, if a
different government with different priorities was in charge. "The
failure starts with the overconfidence spread by the prime minister,"
that his "sophisticated manipulations" deterred Hamas.

"5,000 Palestinian terrorists shook the foundations of the state of
Israel because of the overconfidence and arrogance," he concludes

* Armageddon
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* Israel
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Gaza
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* Palestine
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* Ehud Olmert
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* Genocide
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* IDF
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* Hostages
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* Hamas
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* Itamar Ben-Gvir
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* Bezalel Smotrich
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