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 And that is the main thing.
IT SHOULD not be forgotten: In the period in which these ideas were crystallizing in Olmert's mind, he was allowing the settlements to expand, especially in East Jerusalem. That gives rise to an unavoidable question: Does he really mean what he says? Isn't he cheating, as is his wont? Isn't this some sort of manipulation, as usual? This time I tend to believe him. One can say: the words sound truthful. Not only the words themselves are important, but also the music. The whole thing sounds like the political testament of a person who is resigned to the end of his political career. It has a philosophical ring - the confession of a person who has spent two and a half years in the highest decision-making office in the land, has absorbed the lessons and drawn conclusions. One can ask: Why do such people reach their conclusions only on finishing their term of office, when they can no longer do much about the wise things they are proposing? Why did Bill Clinton come to formulate his proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace during his last days in office, after wasting eight years on irresponsible games in this arena? And why, for that matter, did Lyndon Johnson admit that the Vietnam War has been a terrible mistake right from the beginning only after he himself had brought about the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese? The superficial answer lies in the character of political life. A Prime Minister rushes from problem to problem, from crisis to crisis. He is exposed to temptations and pressures from the outside and stress from the inside, coalition squabbling and inner-party intrigues. He has neither the time nor the detachment to draw conclusions. The two and a half years of Olmert's term were full of crises, from the Second Lebanon War, for which he was responsible, to the corruption investigations which dogged him throughout. Only now has he got the time, and perhaps the philosophical composure, to draw conclusions. That is the importance of this interview: the speaker is a person who stood for two and a half years at the center of national and international decision making, a person who was exposed to the pressures and the calculations, who had personal contact with the leaders of the world and of the Palestinians. A normal person, not brilliant, not a profound thinker by any means, a man of political practice, who "saw things from there that cannot be seen from here". He has delivered a kind of State of the Nation report to the public, a summary of the reality of Israel after 60 years of the state and 120 years of the Zionist enterprise. ONE CAN point out the huge gaps in this summary. There is no criticism of Zionist policy over five generations - but that is something that one cannot really expect from him. There is no empathy with the feelings, the aspirations and the traumas of the Palestinian people. There is no mention of the refugee problem (it is known that he is ready to take back just a few thousand in the framework of "family reunion"). There is no admission of guilt for the disastrous enlargement of the settlements. And the list is long. The primitive basis of his world view has not changed. That is made clear by the following amazing statement: "Every grain of the area from the Jordan to the sea that we will give up will burn our hearts … When we dig in these areas, what do we find? Speeches by Arafat's grandfather, or Arafat's great great great grandfather? We find there the historical memories of the people of Israel!" That is utter nonsense. It is totally unsupported by historical and archeological research. The man is just repeating things he picked up in his early youth, he is simply expressing his gut feelings. Anyone sticking to this ideology will find it hard to dismantle settlements and make peace. All the same, what is in this testament? It is an unequivocal and final divorce from "All of Eretz Israel" from a person who grew up in a home over which hovered the Irgun emblem: the map of Eretz Israel on both sides of the Jordan. For him, the Irgun slogan "Only Thus" has turned into "Anything But Thus". It gives unequivocal support to the partition of the country. This time, his adherence to the principle of "Two States for Two Peoples" appears much more genuine, not lip service or sleight of hand. His demand for "fixing the final borders of the State of Israel" represents a revolution in Zionist thought. Olmert has already said in the past that the State of Israel is "finished" if it does not agree to partition, because of the "demographic danger". This time he does not invoke that demon. Now he speaks as an Israeli who is thinking about the future of Israel as a progressive, constructive, peaceful state. All this is put forward not as a vision for the remote future, but as a plan for the present. He demands that a decision be taken now. It almost sounds like: Let me continue for another few months, and I shall do it. The unstated assumption is that the Palestinians are ready for this historic turning point. And he has fixed an Israeli position from which there can be no going back in any future negotiations. THIS IS the testament of the Prime Minister, and it is obviously intended for the next Prime Minister. We don't know whether Tzipi Livni is ready to implement such a plan, or what she thinks about this testament. True, she has lately voiced rather similar ideas, but she is now entering the cauldron of the Prime Minister's office. One cannot know what she will do. I wish her one thing above all: that at the end of her days as Prime Minister she will not have to sit down and give an interview, in which she, too, will apologize for missing the historic opportunity for making peace.
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