Jerusalem – Former prime minister Ehud Olmert said on Saturday that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu was taking Israel into unprecedented isolation with its policy on Jewish settlements.
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He singled out Israel’s recent announcement that it would build new settlement homes in the E1 corridor near Jerusalem. The plan has sparked international protest.
Olmert said such plans had been around for years. But making the announcement days after the United States sided with Israel against the Palestinians’ successful bid for de facto statehood recognition by the U.N. General Assembly was a slap in the face to the Jewish state’s main ally.
“Bibi Netanyahu,” he said, using the prime minister’s nickname, “is isolating Israel from the entire world in an unprecedented way, and we will pay a high price in every facet of our lives, and the Israeli public should know it.”
The settlement plans have provoked worldwide condemnation, with the United Nations, the United States and the European Union all voicing criticism of the project which they see as complicating any attempts at peace with Palestinians.
In Berlin this week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Netanyahu to avoid “one-sided moves”.
Olmert, speaking on Israel’s “Meet the Press”, said he did not embark on a widely expected bid to run in Israel’s upcoming January election due to a lack of unity in the center-left bloc, as well as lingering legal troubles.
A former head of the centrist Kadima party, Olmert was in July largely cleared of corruption charges that had forced him from office in 2008.
This ‘senior statesman’ has more trials coming up on corruption charges. Funny that he was about to give away the Kotel, yet he thinks he is a hero.
One of his kids deserted the army and the other ran away from the country to stay away from the army. And this is who they admire???
Mr Olmert had his chance as prime minister and didn’t succeed in doing much,even along the lines of his own policies. I guess he figures that in a country where the leader was elected in even though he has a poor record of nil accomplishments that he will be able to be heard better.
Am Levodod
A nation isolated. Does he want to assimilate our great klal yisroel?
in any other normal country,this criminally insane traitorous self hating leftist gangster,would be hanging from the gallows,but in Israel he is a respected elder statesman and is quoted in all the newspapers,
And the same goes to the other leftist traitorous swine, Shimon Peres,instead of hanging from the gallows,this old degenerate Alzheimer’s afflicted traitor is made President,what a crazy country
Regarding the comments about serving in the IDF, I was wondering if one of our distinguished commentators on this board, could answer a very simple question, which has puzzled me for years. In 1967, when American volunteers besieged the Israeli consulate in NYC to serve in the IDF at the start of the Six Day War, they were told that “you will lose your citizenship”. In fact, when naturalized American citizens take the oath of citizenship, they state that they will not bear arms, or serve in a foreign army. Therefore, how is it that the U.S. State Department appears to look the other way, when thousands of American citizens serve in the IDF? According to U.S. federal statutes, it is illegal to do so, and could result in revocation of one’s citizenship; this is exactly what the Israeli consulate was advising American citizens in1967. Can someone explain this lack of enforcement?
When he is right he is right, lets face it, we have a hard line PM, basically his policies only supported by mitnachmim and a few commentators here on VIN, oh i forgot bibi also has support from Micronesia (misspelled?)