Netanyahu and his “gang of pogromists” have willed this war – Ehud Olmert
JVL Introduction
In an op-ed in Haaretz former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warns of “the bunch of messianic hallucinators that has seized power in the state of Israel”.
In language that pulls no punches, Olmert refers to this “gang of pogromists” who run the Israeli government, and describes their way of achieving their goals as “blood-soaked”, involving “Israeli blood, in the state and in the territories it has been controlling for 57 years now, as well as Jewish blood in places elsewhere in the world. As well as a lot of Palestinian blood…”
And people have been suspended from the British Labour Party merely for calling for a ceasefire or suggesting that Netanyahu allowed October 7th to happen
RK
This article was originally published by Haaretz on Thu 22 Feb 2024. Read the original here.
Netanyahu's messianic coalition partners want an all-out regional war. Gaza is just a first step
The ultimate aim of this gang is “purging” the West Bank of its Palestinian inhabitants, cleansing the Temple Mount of its Muslim worshippers and annexing the territories to the state of Israel. This aim will not be achieved without extensive violent conflict. Armageddon
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There was always a danger that this blame the rise of the “far right” line of argument would creep in. Triggering nostalgic notions of getting back to some golden age of ‘socialist Zionism’ and ‘liberal Zionism’. It doesn’t bear scrutiny.
Interesting – but the article almost seems to discuss sideshow issues.
Increasingly I’m wondering whether Israel HAS a medium-term future in its present form – the state has burnt so many bridges, is so internally divided and has so few sources of inward renewal.
Geordie Galloway last night called for Egypt, China and Russia to break the blockade for aid into Palestine by land and sea
Other Arab states should join them under a UN peacekeeping flag to enter Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to guarantee Palestinian security
The JVL introduction omitted to mention the important context that Olmert himself bore a major responsibility for turning Gaza into a concentration camp after 2006 and unleashing the horrible Gazan massacre of operation Cast Lead in 2008/9 which resulted in major war crimes, including the shelling of the UNRWA headquarters. However in the art of ethnic cleansing Olmert is a relatively cautious practitioner. So when he calls those who run the Israeli government a “gang of pogromists” he should be taken seriously. After all it takes one to know one.
So, can you spell out any genuine differences between the Olmert coalition and the Netanyahu coalition, within the immediately relevant historical context?
It is interesting (to me) that my initial, unpublished comment on this thread was pretty much in the same vein as that of George Wilmers (above). It was also submitted before George’s response. I say this not as a protest or a complaint, but merely to reinforce my belief that there is always a danger of summoning up some sort of status quo ante golden age of peaceful co-existence interrupted from time to time by a few disgruntled hotheads, thereby necessitating a periodic ‘mowing of the grass’, following which, successive Israeli governments would agree to a ceasefire because they are such reasonable and peace-loving people.