The current Israeli government is acting against the principles of democracy, unity and decency, and should be replaced by one that is loyal to these principles, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert told Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Avi Mayer at The Jerusalem Post’s Annual Conference in New York on Monday.
Israel was not doing well diplomatically, Olmert said.
“We had better times. In terms of the state, and the leadership – in general, in Europe and in America,” he said.
Israel's government acts against key principles
The fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not invited to Washington for five months was not coincidental, Olmert said. It was a message to the government of Israel in general, and specific ministers in particular, that the Biden administration was not happy.
According to Olmert, the relationship between Israel and the US has cooled somewhat during Netanyahu’s period as prime minister.
“When I was prime minister and George W. Bush was president, he was as friendly as can be. We expanded military cooperation to unprecedented levels,” Olmert said.
He argued that this slowed when Netanyahu started to “provoke” former president Barack Obama. There is still great military cooperation, but not on strategic issues of great importance, including exceptional, strategic operations, which the US government fears Israel may use against it.
Olmert added that Israel’s military strike against nuclear reactors in Syria was an example of a good relationship. The legend is that Bush did not support the strike, the former prime minister said. This is not completely inaccurate, but after Olmert rejected the US president’s request to hold off on the strike, he directed his aides that Washington should do everything it can to not interfere.