Exclusive | War should've ended 5 months ago: Former Israeli PM Olmert blames Netanyahu for prolonging crisis

While acknowledging the fact that the Israel-Hamas war was inevitable, the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert stated that the ongoing conflict could have ended five months ago

In a thought-provoking interview with the Firstpost's Bhagyasree Sengupta, the erstwhile Israeli premier gave his take on the crisis at hand and how Israel's current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dealing with it.

Olmert was the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009. The veteran politician was at the forefront of several peace deal negotiations with the Palestinians and the Arab world. During his premiership, he navigated Israel through the Second Lebanon War and the Cast Lead Operation in Gaza. Throughout the ongoing conflict, Olmert has been a strong advocate for the implementation of a two-state solution in the region.

During the insightful conversation, the former Israeli premier delved more into Netanyahu's conduct throughout the war.

War should have ended 5 months ago'

When asked what is Israel's end goal when it comes to its ongoing ground operation in Gaza and how long can the Jewish nation sustain it, the veteran politician made it clear that the raging conflict should have ended five months ago and there is "not much to carry out since then".

"We achieved an important part of our original goals. We reached out for much of the military capacity of Hamas. We destroyed many of the tunnels. We killed more than 12,000 fighters of Hamas, which is an incredible number. We destroyed most of the bunkers, most of the command positions, most of their launchers, most of the rockets," Olmert explained.

However, he acknowledged that during this operation, a large part of Gaza was destroyed and brought up the need to look after the political future of the conflict-stricken coastal enclave.

Okay, let's assume that we have destroyed all of the Hamas. There was no one left of Hamas. All of the fighters, all of the leaders, Sinwar, Mohammad Deif, everyone will be destroyed, killed, annihilated by Israel."

"There are still six million Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. What is the political horizon to deal with this? And this is something that the Israeli government refuses to say," he remarked.

Olmert went on to recall that there was a "political plan" in place when he was in power. "I spelt it out many years ago when I was prime minister, and I presented a comprehensive peace plan to the then-Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, which was based on a two-state solution. There ought to be a Palestinian state, more or less on the borders of 1967, with minor modifications and swaps of territories, and the Arab part of Jerusalem has to be the capital of the Palestinian state," the former Israeli Prime Minister told Firstpost.

He also mentioned that the holy places could have been administered by "a special trust of five nations, the Saudis, the Jordan, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Palestine, the State of Israel, and the Americans (United States)," and noted that all believers would have "free access to these sites".

However, he noted that in 2024, Netanyahu is refusing to lay out the end game. "The argument that many in Israel have, and not only in Israel, across the world, is that the Israeli Prime Minister knows that his political partners in the right-wing messianic, extremist groups within the government will break the coalition if the government accepts compromises," Olmert averred.

"I wish I could tell you what the end game of Netanyahu is, but the end game of Netanyahu completely focuses on his political survivability and not on the national interest of Israel," he added.

War was inevitable but Netanyhu's remarks were unnecessary'

When asked what was his first thought when the October 7 attack broke out in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists, Olmert recalled the distressing time. "I was on my way back to Israel, flying from Europe. The whole picture was very confusing and distressing and very painful. We started to hear about how so many different Israelis were killed in their homes, in their living rooms, in their bedrooms and different towns across the border. It was terrible," Olmert told Firstpost.

He pointed out that while the war against Hamas was not declared on the same day, some of the statements made by Netanyahu at that time were "unnecessary". "He (Netanyahu) said that we will leave Gaza in rubble and that Gaza will be destroyed. You can do certain things sometimes in the course of war. But if you declare in advance that you will destroy everything and bring Gaza into rubble, that then creates an impression that you are prepared to commit war crimes, which were unnecessary," he added.