ON SOME CANDOR IN ISRAEL

UNEXPECTED STEPS

Not a lot of cheerful news around the world today, as our politicians and the financial markets play a game of chicken. 

But I did think these comments by the outgoing Prime Minister of Israel, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, were one bright spot in a long time.  The New York Times reports (image source):

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published on Monday that Israel must withdraw from nearly all of the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem to attain peace with the Palestinians and that any occupied land it held onto would have to be exchanged for the same quantity of Israeli territory.      

He also dismissed as “megalomania” any thought that Israel would or should attack Iran on its own to stop it from developing nuclear weapons, saying the international community and not Israel alone was charged with handling the issue."

These are very unusual comments for any Israeli politician, especially one from the right.  As Prime Minister Olmert himself observed:

"“What I am saying to you now has not been said by any Israeli leader before me,” Mr. Olmert told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot in the interview on the occasion of the Jewish new year, observed from Monday evening till Wednesday evening. “The time has come to say these things.”

He said that traditional Israeli defense strategists had learned nothing from past experiences and that they seemed stuck in the considerations of the 1948 war of independence.

“With them, it is all about tanks and land and controlling territories and controlled territories and this hilltop and that hilltop,” he said. “All these things are worthless.”

I read the whole piece twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things.  These are remarkable comments, even from a lame duck head of state who's stepping down due to pending corruption charges.

One can only hope that we see similar soul-searching comments from the Palestinian and Arab sides, sooner than later.  Only then will we actually see a way to Shalom and Salaam ("Peace" in Hebrew and Arabic) in the region in our time.

Here's to a hopeful New Year.  Happy Holidays.