Israeli PM Olmert: Divide Jerusalem, Return Golan, I Was Wrong

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave a holiday interview to Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yediot Ahronot on September 28th. In it, he dropped a few bombshells - divide Jerusalem, return the Golan Heights to Syria, withdraw from all or nearly all of the West Bank. Wow. Uri Avnery translated some of the juiciest bits in his weekly column:

"We must reach an agreement with the Palestinians, the essence of which is that we shall actually withdraw from almost all the territories, if not from all the territories. We shall keep in our hands a percentage of these territories, but we shall be compelled to give the Palestinians a similar percentage, because without that there will be no peace."

"… including Jerusalem. With special solutions, that I can visualize, for the Temple Mount and the historical holy places … Anyone who wants to keep all the territory of the city will have to put 270 thousand Arabs behind fences within sovereign Israel. That won't work."

"I was the first who wanted to impose Israeli sovereignty on all the city. I admit … I was not ready to look into all the depths of reality."

"Concerning Syria, what we need first of all is a decision. I wonder if there is one single serious person in Israel who believes it is possible to make peace with Syria without giving up the Golan Heights in the end."

"The aim is to try and fix for the first time a precise border between us and the Palestinians, a border that all the world [will recognize]."

"Let's assume that in the next year or two a regional war will break out and we shall have a military confrontation with Syria. I have no doubt that we shall smite them hip and thigh [an allusion to Judges 15:8] … [But] what will happen when we win? … Why go to war with the Syrians in order to achieve what we can get anyway without paying such a high price?"

"What was the greatness of Menachem Begin? [He] sent Dayan to meet with Tohami [Sadat's emissary] in Morocco, before he even met Sadat … and Dayan told Tohami, on behalf of Begin, that we were prepared to withdraw from all of Sinai."

"Arik Sharon, Bibi Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Rabin, his memory be blessed …each one of them took a step that led us in the right direction, but at some point in time, at some crossroads, when a decision was needed, the decision did not come."

"A few days ago I sat in a discussion with the key people in the decision-making process. At the end [I told them]: listening to you, I understand why we have not made peace with the Palestinians and the Syrians during the last 40 years."

"We can perhaps take a historic step in our relations with the Palestinians, and a historic step in our relations with the Syrians. In both cases the decision we must make is the decision we have refused to face with open eyes for 40 years."

"When you sit on this chair you must ask yourself: where do you direct the effort? To make peace or just to be stronger and stronger and stronger in order to win the war … Our power is great enough to face any danger. Now we must try and see how to use this infrastructure of power in order to make peace and not to win wars."

"Iran is a very great power … The assumption that America and Russia and China and Britain and Germany do not know how to handle the Iranians, and we Israelis know and we shall do so, is an example of the loss of all sense of proportion."

"I read the statements of our ex-generals and I say: how can it be that they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing?"

The significance of this change of heart is heart to underestimate, and the consequences have yet to fully percolate throuh the Israeli (or American) political system. It's harder to portray these views as 'soft on Israel' coming as they do from a prince of the Israeli right wing, former mayor of Jerusalem, and now, former prime minister.