Olmert: Every Solution Will Be Painful

The Jerusalem Post has a must-read interview with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which he discusses the prospects for finding a peaceful solution with the Palestinians during this small window of opportunity that exists whilst Bush is president of the US with Sarkozy in France, Merkel in Germany and Blair playing the role of special envoy to the Middle East.

Some highlights

• Olmert said the PA leader genuinely wanted peace and that in his heart of hearts he recognized Israel as a Jewish state (though he won’t state that publicly).
• He has made clear he would be willing to make deep concessions to the Palestinians - and noted that even Israel's best friends see a future in which Israel ultimately won't be much larger than the 1967 lines.

Few people reckoned that Olmert would survive 2007 with his government still intact, but survive he did despite the findings of the Winograd Committee, unprecedented low poll numbers and a coalition that relies on two right-wing parties opposed to the type of concessions that Olmert is willing to make.

The first question of the interview provokes the most interesting and controversial response…

You've said several times that it is vital to Israel that we reach a two-state solution. Can you elaborate? You've even been quoted saying the country is finished if that can't be achieved. I said that if the solution of two states for two peoples is not realized - and Israel will have to deal with a reality of one state for two peoples - that this could bring about the end of the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. That is a danger one cannot deny; it exists… What will we be if we don’t want to separate? […] We must provide an answer to that question. We cannot ignore it. Can Israel continue to hold on to the territories from the Jordan to the sea, [with] a non-Jewish population that even now is approaching the number of Jews in Israel, and taking into consideration that, with the reproduction rate, the [Arab population] can surpass [the Jewish population] in 20 or 30 years? But do the Palestinians - who also understand the demographic process - truly want a viable two-state solution? The impression is that this idea is losing ground with them. The vast majority of the Palestinians want to live in their own state... But the question of whether or not they want this is not the measure by which I need to judge things. The question is whether we understand, and we do understand, that we need to draw the necessary conclusions, and also pay the price. And the price is very high, and there are risks. I don't live in a bubble... I know what I am dealing with, who the Palestinians are. There are many people who in my opinion want to live in peace with us. But there are terrorist groups, fundamentalists, fanatics, those without any tolerance, who live according to a value system completely different than the value system of the Western world, which we are a part of. And that is a threat. There are no simple solutions... Every solution will be painful, but we have to deal with it. We cannot close our eyes... In the end we will find a way to a solution. First, we have to seriously try the path of negotiations. And that is what we are doing now.

Comments

[Brett]

Olmert is using the same logic he did to justify the disengagement - a tragedy almost everyone now agrees was a disaster. How the logic is sound to those who hold democracy above all. As Olmert explained when he visited SA to 2004, and as he alluded to in his interview, maintaining the status quo in Judea and Samaria has one of 2 effects. Ether we continue to have partial control over people within our borders without giving them full rights, or we absorb them and democratically lose Israel. He sees the former as an absolute non option because he holds democracy a higher ideal them survival. Even though it is clear that the Palestinians do not want a peaceful 2 state solution, he would rather live in a state of war with an ever strengthening enemy than betray the absolute principles of democracy.

Interestingly enough Benny Elon's plan (he is mentioned in the article) will result in the most democractic and stable and peaceful outcome for all, but it is the least politically correct one and so will not likely be realised.

[Barbara]

The only thing painful is OLMERT.

[Hillel]

A little careful inspection will reveal two (paradoxical?) palestinian weltaunshaung axioms:

1) the palestinians do NOT want to live in a palestinian state (this is conclusively evidenced by the flight rate from gaza & the west bank, "East" Jerusalem's Palestinian's refusal to be part of a palestinian controlled entity and choosing rather to be part of Israel, etc etc)
2) the palestinians hate the jews/israelis/zionists enough to rather destroy israel and murder every last jew and subject themselves to a state they don't want and inhuman barbarism in a police state (i.e. axiom 1) than live alongside, or in, a democratic/jewish state.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.