Olmert's new morning of great hope

Ehud Olmert may become the next Prime Minister of Israel. I knew very little about him, aside from the fact that he had been Mayor of Jerusalem. Then I read the "tired" quote in an opinion piece by Paula Stern.

"We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies."

That quote has gotten a fair amount of play around the blogosphere, and I myself repeated it or referred to it several times before I began to feel that I was completely unfair to the man.

Then Rick Richman sent me this link to the speech from which it came.

I have never ever understood there to be any benefit for the Jewish people in Sharon's "Disengagement Plan." There was some appeal in Dry Bones' notion of circling the wagons "in preparation for the next mid east war" but even that falls short of explaining how the state of Israel came to commit the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Gaza strip.

According to Olmert's speech, two months before the Expulsion:

I came here tonight to tell you, on behalf of Prime Minster Sharon, on behalf of the Israeli government, that we are confident that this disengagement will be successful and that it will then lead to the beginning of a new pattern of relations between us and the Palestinian Authority (Applause) and that these relations will develop into a meaningful dialogue....

Terror will not disappear overnight, but we know that there is no alternative and we pray that the Palestinians will understand that there is no alternative. And if they will understand what we know now [then] things will change. And we will spare no effort in order to convince them, not by fighting with them, not by killing them, not by reaching out for their leaders, but by sitting with them, and talking with them, and helping them, and cooperating with them, and partnering with them...

So, you see, the plan was right out of Spielberg: there is a "cycle of violence" and all we have to do to break the cycle is have a nice group hug with the Palestinians and sing Kumbayah. We'll love them and keep on loving them until they love us back. Or, as Olmert fantasized, until they "understand."

Methinks that if the Palestinians were going to understand, they would have at least begun, sometime earlier in the last three or four decades.

I fear that Olmert is a fool.

"I pray, that a month later, when all Israelis will be resettled inside the State of Israel and the Gaza District will be sovereign entirely by the Palestinians, that a new morning of great hope will emerge in our part of the world."

Well, boker tov (good morning), Mr. Olmert. Now what?

Comments

[westbankmama]

If there was ever a time for American Jews to come to Israel - this statement proves that this is it. Veteran Israelis are tired, and are grasping at whatever straw is in reach in order to convince themselves that terrorism will stop soon. Following blindly after Olmert, because he was Sharon's number two man, really shows the desperation that has taken over. We need new people to help put their shoulders to the wheel - and strong, idealistic American Jews who love Israel are just the right ones.