Happy New Year ... or ... A Remarkable Process continued

Olmert hints Jerusalem division is inevitable.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signaled on Tuesday Israel might have no choice but to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians in a peace deal, citing international pressure for compromise over the holy city.

"The world that is friendly to Israel ... that really supports Israel, when it speaks of the future, it speaks of Israel in terms of the '67 borders. It speaks of the division of Jerusalem," Olmert said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Here's that interview. My heart is on the floor, so I'll just give you a couple of priceless Olmert quotes before I go back to bed.

On Abu Mazen:

"My impression is that he wants peace with Israel, and accepts Israel as Israel defines itself," Olmert said. "If you ask him to say that he sees Israel as a Jewish state, he will not say that. But if you ask me whether in his soul he accepts Israel, as Israel defines itself, I think he does. That is not insignificant. It is perhaps not enough, but it is not insignificant."

On Bush:

"He's not doing a single thing that I don't agree to.
He doesn't support anything that I oppose."

BACKGROUND, in three parts:

I. Olmert to Israel Policy Forum - 9 June 2005

".... We must be very happy that we can come across the barriers that separated us as we move forward, and we try to move the State of Israel forward into new policies, into new horizons, and into dramatic changes, which hopefully will bring, at the end, peace and security to ourselves and to the Palestinians, that will live alongside the State of Israel in an independent state of their own.

This is a remarkable process, which we are going through now. What the government of Ariel Sharon is doing is a dramatic change that will have an enormous impact on everything that will happen thereafter, in the State of Israel and in the Middle East. The most fundamental part of this change is the understanding that it is incumbent first and foremost upon ourselves to make the move, that we don't have to wait anymore, that we really don't need the United States to lead the process in the Middle East, we will lead this process in the Middle East.

"We will lead it because it's good for us. And we will lead it because it may be good for the Palestinians. And we believe that if it will be good for us and will be good for the Palestinians, then it will be good. It will bring more security, greater safety, much more prosperity, and a lot of joy for all the people that live in the Middle East.

"And we all desperately need it. We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies. We want that we will be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies. We want them to be our friends, our partners, our good neighbors, and I believe that this is not impossible. It may not be as fast as we all want it to be, it may take longer than we expect, it is not as simple as it sometimes appears to the eyes of the outsiders that are not fully aware of all the complexities of the memories, and the biases, and prejudices and fears, and suspicions which characterize these relations between us and the Palestinians over such a long period of time. But this time I can say, that I have reached, as many of my colleagues, first and foremost the prime minister of Israel, that this is not impossible. That it is within reach if we will be smart, if we will dare, if we will be prepared to take the risks, and if we will be able to convince our Palestinian partners to be able to do the same.

So that together

we will move forward

in this direction

of building up

different relations,

better understanding,

and greater trust

between us

and them."

II. Amir Taheri - July 2004:

This enemy does not want to give and take, to compromise, or to triangulate. He wants you to obey him in every detail or he will kill you... He will not be happy even if, in the spirit of liberal generosity, you gave him half of your power and wealth. Nor would he settle for a total American withdrawal from the world. Nor would he be satisfied if you helped wipe Israel off the map. This enemy's conflict with the United States, and alongside it other democracies, not to mention those Muslims who also aspire after democracy, is not political but existential. He wants to rule you because he thinks he is the holder of a "the highest form of truth." This enemy wants you, the whole world in fact, to convert to Islam because he believes the advent of Islam abrogated all other religions. Anyone who is not a Muslim is not a full human being. "Our struggle is not about land or water," the late Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini said in 1980. "It is about bringing, by force if necessary, the whole of mankind onto the right path."

Melanie Phillips:

One day, this will become clear to everyone. The problem is, what state we'll be in by the time that happens.

III.

Comments

[RR]

Olmert has looked into Abbas's eyes and seen something that is not there, has heard things that Abbas has not said, and has failed to hear Abbas (and the other Palestinian "moderates") tell him -- more than once -- that it is not going to be said. What Olmert has seen is a silent self-reflection, and he thinks it is beautiful.

[Yael]

Didn't Bush also see something in Putin that turns out not to have been there? What's WRONG with these guys?