Exclusive | War should've ended 5 months ago: Former Israeli PM Olmert blames Netanyahu for prolonging crisis

While acknowledging the fact that the Israel-Hamas war was inevitable, the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert stated that the ongoing conflict could have ended five months ago. In a thought-provoking interview with the Firstpost’s Bhagyasree Sengupta, the erstwhile Israeli premier gave his take on the crisis at hand and how Israel’s current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dealing with it.

Olmert was the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009. The veteran politician was at the forefront of several peace deal negotiations with the Palestinians and the Arab world. During his premiership, he navigated Israel through the Second Lebanon War and the Cast Lead Operation in Gaza. Throughout the ongoing conflict, Olmert has been a strong advocate for the implementation of a two-state solution in the region.

During the insightful conversation, the former Israeli premier delved more into Netanyahu’s conduct throughout the war.

‘War should have ended 5 months ago’

When asked what is Israel’s end goal when it comes to its ongoing ground operation in Gaza and how long can the Jewish nation sustain it, the veteran politician made it clear that the raging conflict should have ended five months ago and there is “not much to carry out since then”.

“We achieved an important part of our original goals. We reached out for much of the military capacity of Hamas. We destroyed many of the tunnels. We killed more than 12,000 fighters of Hamas, which is an incredible number. We destroyed most of the bunkers, most of the command positions, most of their launchers, most of the rockets,” Olmert explained.

However, he acknowledged that during this operation, a large part of Gaza was destroyed and brought up the need to look after the political future of the conflict-stricken coastal enclave.

“Okay, let’s assume that we have destroyed all of the Hamas. There was no one left of Hamas. All of the fighters, all of the leaders, Sinwar, Mohammad Deif, everyone will be destroyed, killed, annihilated by Israel.”

“There are still six million Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. What is the political horizon to deal with this? And this is something that the Israeli government refuses to say,” he remarked.

Olmert went on to recall that there was a “political plan” in place when he was in power. “I spelt it out many years ago when I was prime minister, and I presented a comprehensive peace plan to the then-Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, which was based on a two-state solution. There ought to be a Palestinian state, more or less on the borders of 1967, with minor modifications and swaps of territories, and the Arab part of Jerusalem has to be the capital of the Palestinian state,” the former Israeli Prime Minister told Firstpost.

He also mentioned that the holy places could have been administered by “a special trust of five nations, the Saudis, the Jordan, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Palestine, the State of Israel, and the Americans (United States),” and noted that all believers would have “free access to these sites”.

However, he noted that in 2024, Netanyahu is refusing to lay out the end game. “The argument that many in Israel have, and not only in Israel, across the world, is that the Israeli Prime Minister knows that his political partners in the right-wing messianic, extremist groups within the government will break the coalition if the government accepts compromises,” Olmert averred.

“I wish I could tell you what the end game of Netanyahu is, but the end game of Netanyahu completely focuses on his political survivability and not on the national interest of Israel,” he added.

‘War was inevitable but Netanyhu’s remarks were unnecessary’

When asked what was his first thought when the October 7 attack broke out in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists, Olmert recalled the distressing time. “I was on my way back to Israel, flying from Europe. The whole picture was very confusing and distressing and very painful. We started to hear about how so many different Israelis were killed in their homes, in their living rooms, in their bedrooms and different towns across the border. It was terrible,” Olmert told Firstpost.

He pointed out that while the war against Hamas was not declared on the same day, some of the statements made by Netanyahu at that time were “unnecessary”. “He (Netanyahu) said that we will leave Gaza in rubble and that Gaza will be destroyed. You can do certain things sometimes in the course of war. But if you declare in advance that you will destroy everything and bring Gaza into rubble, that then creates an impression that you are prepared to commit war crimes, which were unnecessary,” he added.

Was October 7 an intelligence failure or Netanyahu’s failure?

Commenting on the Israeli military intelligence chief’s decision to step down from the post and question whether the October 7 attack was an “intelligence failure”, Olmert made it clear that Israel has all the information needed to ensure security. However, the ex-PM emphasised that Netanyahu undermined Hamas.

“Look, the reason for the failure of Israel to anticipate the events on October 7 is not a lack of intelligence. We had all the information that was needed in order to know what was coming up. We knew everything,” said Olmert.

“What we didn’t have, we didn’t have the wisdom to understand that they are actually going to accomplish it. And this was primarily because the position of the Israeli prime minister was that Hamas was deterred. Hamas is not going to actually fight with us because they want some kind of stability,” he furthered.

Olmert who has been the Mayor of Jerusalem claimed that Netanyahu preferred an “informal cooperation with Hamas”. “What happened is that the prime minister preferred the kind of informal cooperation with Hamas over the need to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority because the Palestinian Authority is a potential partner for peace. And peace also means territorial compromises,” he explained. The erstwhile Israeli leader claimed that a territorial compromise with the Palestinians would not have sat well with some of his partners in the current coalition government.

The looming ICC arrest warrant

Olmert articulated that while he has been extremely critical of Netanyahu, he does not believe that the state of Israel has committed war crimes. The comments from the former Israeli premier came weeks after the prosecutors of the International Criminal Court said that they are pursuing an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Hamas leaders.

“I don’t think that Israel has committed war crimes or crimes against humanity, and therefore I completely disagree with the ICC in their demand for the charges of the arrest warrant against Netanyahu and the defence minister (Yoav Gallant), particularly in combination or in the binding or linking together the killers of the Hezbollah and Hamas,” he said.

“Never in the history of the state of Israel, has there been any order given by a civilian authority or by a military authority to kill our enemies indiscriminately. In many innocent civilians became victims of war because the terrorists are embedded with them,” he mentioned, adding that there was no “intended desire to kill indiscriminately”.

Likud before Netanyahu

Both Netanyahu and Olmert were part of the same political party named Likud, in fact, Olmert was one of the founders of the Israeli party. The ex-PM insisted that the party which was established in 1973 was completely different from what it is now. “It was established in September of 1973, and I’m still signed on the proclamation of the establishment of the party. Netanyahu joined it much later. So, the Likud that we established in 1973 and that was led then by the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin was an entirely different party,” the former Israeli premier told Firstpost.

“It was a right-wing party, but it was not an extreme right-wing party. It was not a nationalistic chauvinistic and fundamentalist party. It was a more conservative party in its basic attitude on major issues, but it was at the same time capable of making political compromises that actually led Israel into the major peace agreement that we signed with Egypt in 1979, which was a historic achievement by Begin,” he added, insisting that something like this would have never happened in today’s day and age.

Hamas and Hezbollah of today

When describing how his administration navigated through the challenges posed by Hamas and Hezbollah, Olmert mentioned that Israel’s operation in 2006 deterred Hezbollah to such an extent that the Lebanese-based militant group did not attack Israeli territory for the past 17 years, until now.

“For 17 years Hezbollah was deterred and they didn’t shoot one time across the border from Israel which was an absolute victory over Hezbollah at that time. They came back to the border between Israel and Lebanon on the 7th of October when they saw the weakness of the Israeli response at the beginning and the total inability of the Israeli government to respond to the attacks in the south, they decided to join in with the military operation in the north,” Olmert said after narrating the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon war.

When it comes to the Cast Lead Operation in Gaza, Olmert elucidated the reason why Israel withdrew its troops from the coastal enclave before he actually would have liked.

“What happened in the Cast Lead operation, I wanted to carry on the war further in order to destroy the entire dominance of Hamas in Gaza. Unfortunately, at that time, it was a month before the elections and I announced my resignation already,” he said. “My partners to the coalition at that time, the minister of defence, the chief of staff, the minister of foreign affairs, all of them were not prepared to carry on the military operation,” he furthered, admitting that Israel lost the opportunity to destroy Hamas’ control in Gaza at that time.

On Biden, Modi and Israel’s friends

When asked about the upcoming US presidential election and its impact on Israel-US ties, Olmert did not mention much about former US President Donald Trump. However, he insisted that the current American Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden has been the “most forthcoming president as far as Israel is concerned.”

“Biden is a friend of mine. I don’t remember anyone being as friendly, and supportive as President Biden to the state of Israel. And I admire his convictions his principles his values and his friendship to the state of Israel. We couldn’t expect to have any better friend than Biden is,” he said, adding that as an Israeli he finds no reason for a change in American presidency.

When it comes to India’s role in the prospective peace process, Olmert described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “strong ally” of Israel. He also recalled his strong ties with the former Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh. “He (PM Modi) carries on in the tradition of former Prime Ministers of India, who were friends of Israel. I dealt with Prime Minister Singh for a long time. Although he was from another party, he was from the Congress party,” the former Israeli premier averred.

“I can only say good things about Mr. Singh and I think that Modi is a very outspoken friend of the State of Israel,” he added.

When asked about the kind of role the international leaders can play in the peaceful resolution of the conflict, Olmert pointed out that most of the world leaders are in support of a two-state solution.

“I would suggest to them to talk to the Israeli Prime Minister and explain to him that one is not an enemy of Israel if he is for a Palestinian state. And that if one says to Israel that he supports the creation of a Palestinian state, he looks at what he thinks is good for Israel and the Palestinians and stability in the Middle East and perhaps also a momentum for peace between us and our historical adversaries,” he remarked.

Hostage situation

When asked about the hostage situation, Olmert insisted that releasing them from Hamas’ captivity should be Israel’s first priority. “Look, when I was prime minister I refused to make a deal with Hamas to release hundreds of prisoners in Israel for releasing one Israeli soldier who was abducted by the Palestinians. In this particular case the situation is entirely different,” he recalled.

“The reason that they (240 hostages) were abducted was because the state of Israel failed to protect them. We failed to prevent the breaking of the Palestinian terrorists into their homes, something that is the most fundamental, elementary responsibility of the government for its citizens.”

“We have to do everything to get them back, this is the first priority, this is the number one obligation that the government has to its citizens. And if, as part of it, we have to stop the war, we have to stop the war,” he added.

‘Go home before we force you out’: Olmert to Netanyahu

In regards to what advice he would like to give to the current Israeli premier, Olmert delivered his advice to Netanyahu’s supporters instead. “I’ll tell you something, which I think is the best advice, but this is not to Netanyahu. I want to advise everyone who supports Netanyahu to lift their support so that we can get rid of him as the Prime Minister of Israel,” Olmert told Firstpost.

“He has been long enough a Prime Minister, he has failed completely in the most fundamental obligation that is expected from a national leader, which is to defend the citizens of the state of Israel,” he said giving an anecdote of how India would have reacted if something like this happened. He insisted that any country’s government would have been called out inevitably in such a situation.

“Go home, before we force you out and leave us alone. Israel will manage, we have brilliant people in the country who can take over and run the government in the best possible manner,” he concluded.

On Sunday, Israel’s National Unity Party Chairman Benny Gantz resigned from Netanyahu’s war cabinet, echoing sentiments similar to Olmert’s and calling for early elections. With veteran politicians calling for quick polls, it will be interesting to see Netanyahu’s next move.