Back in Black? Former PM Ehud Olmert, donning a black blazer, said yesterday that he is keen on “reaching out” to broader audiences. Hmmmm… Something seems amiss here. Is he referring to the same audiences that heard him trying to negotiate with the Arabs to internationalize (what was then called) the “Holy Basin” consisting of Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter, Old City, Mount of Olives, Mount Zion, and the City of David? Not to mention of course, the Temple Mount itself, where dozens of truckloads of precious earth and archaeological treasures were illegally removed and then dumped. Thank God that that ideological path failed to gain traction, and the citizens of Israel just aren’t holding there anymore Mr. Olmert.
I normally enjoy attending and taking part in the JPost Annual Conference, if not as a journalist/producer, then as a curious Israeli who is eager to hear the latest opinions and meet the MK’s in the news. But to have Olmert grace the front page of the paper the next day with his opinion and picture is just plain wrong.
Two points need to be mentioned here. Firstly, Israeli’s know very well what his platform is already and why he showed up. He booked himself into the conference in order to raise himself up at the expense of our democratically elected Prime Minister in an effort to prove that he is still somehow relevant. Not only did the opposite occur, but Bibi later did him in by exposing Iran for what it is that very night (as mentioned later in this article). In fact, his whole liberal Left platform is barely surviving at this point, and is gasping for its last breath. Where are Olmert’s powerful colleagues-in-arms now - Boogey Herzog, Tzipi Livni, Amir Peretz and Ehud Barak? They have all gone the way of irrelevancy, and we can truly be thankful that Israelis are now smarter and up to speed with the Palestinian issues as they really are, and not how they are being spun. It’s not so easy anymore to shove lies down our throats (via the media) as part of a Leftist Arab appeasement agenda. The same holds true with the Americans, by the way vis-à-vis Trump and the foreign policies that he’s fighting for, by and large against the mainstream media there.
The State of Israel deserves better than the likes of these old politicians who have no love for the Jewish People, the Jewish religion, or the Jewish God for that matter. They take after King Ahav who led the nation astray, big time, with no regrets. Why bring Olmert back into the spotlight now? Now is the time to rally behind a strong leader that is proud to be a Jew, a modern and religious Menachem Begin that will fight like a lion against Hezbollah, Hamas, the PA’s propaganda, UNESCO, UNRWA and BDS.
Besides, who is he to tell Israeli’s that we can’t tackle Iran? All of a sudden after getting out of jail, he is privy to all of Israel’s new military capabilities? His whole interview smacks of self-preservation, and his statements are designed to cause political rift, which in the end, sows mistrust and simply empower our enemies. Brings to mind the saying: ‘United we stand; Divided we fall.’ On the contrary, we should be uniting behind the current PM and his government, and especially the Foreign Ministry. What would Olmert do when faced with the same situation today?
The Second Lebanon War (which he presided over) was more or less a disaster in which Hezbollah ended up stockpiling thousands of weapons right under his UN resolution agreement, and Hamas rockets in the south were later all but ignored. These actions went diametrically against the will of the Israeli people at the time and as a result, when he left office Olmert’s approval ratings were the lowest of any previous PM, ever. It’s always easy to shoot down those presently in power, but when you’re wrong, you’re wrong.
Get a grip Ehud, and then live with it for heaven's sake!
Which leads me to my second point (what I call), “Bibi’s Redemption.” Unprecedented. Historic. Call it what you want, but the PM dropped the bomb (as it were) on Iran yesterday before the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. The response from the Right: A call to arms. The response from the Left: Indignation. The response from the Iranian street? Their currency, the rial, fell to a record low today, with $1 USD equal to over 50,000 rial. I dare say, the time to strike may be right now, while the ‘Iran’ is hot! (#IranLied)
In my book, The A.R.K. Report, I bring to light how the geopolitical scenario of today is linked with biblical archaeology in Israel, and how the latter is used and abused towards political ends. When ISIS was in Iraq they made no qualms about destroying all the famous tombs of the prophets that they could find, Nachum, Ezekiel, etc. in order to further their ideological goals, and proudly advertised that fact in the media. In the same way, the Mullahs shamelessly threaten to wipe Israel off the map, write ‘Tel Aviv’ on their ballistic missiles, and covertly develop their nuclear arsenal, breaching the (already flawed) Treaty that was signed with the Obama Administration. As of today, this is now a fact on the ground.
Mr. Netanyahu’s publicly stated goal as Prime Minister is to be “The Protector of Israel,” as he said during last year’s televised interview at the Economic Forum. Like him or hate him, the man is delivering the goods. Indeed, the most striking thing about Bibi’s presentation actually was his pointing out the 5 Iranian nuclear test sites on the map. Mr. Olmert, are you really saying that we can’t take them down? We have the support of the US and NATO so why not emphasize that point and garner even more support abroad? Use conferences like this one to send that message across. Instead, and unfortunately, Olmert (and Ronald Lauder) did the opposite, i.e. – they were the only speakers during the whole conference that actually downplayed the strength of the relationship between Israel and the US, criticizing Bibi of ostracizing the diaspora community, and how the current government is ‘disqualifying them as Jews.’ Like he’s all of a sudden an expert on what it means to be a good (ethical and moral) Jew? Give me a break. Please.
Don’t reach out any longer to us or speak for us Mr. Olmert. It’s not that we Israelis are no match for the Iranians, as you say, it’s that you’re no match.