– He is destroyed emotionally, that’s for sure. Something terrible has happened to him. Bibi has worked all his life with the false notion that he is “Mr. Security”. He is “Mr. Bullshit”, says Ehud Olmert to the American online newspaper Politico.
Olmert was Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 – and is not merciful in his judgment of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in the days before the Hamas attack positioned himself as “Mr. Security”.
Netanyahu’s right-wing government has always boasted of having steely control over the intelligence situation – but the Hamas attack on October 7 is being referred to as possibly the “biggest intelligence blunder” in Israeli history.
– Every minute he is prime minister, he poses a danger to Israel. I really mean it. I am sure that the Americans understand that he is in bad shape, he says.
– DANGER FOR ISRAEL: Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert passes a crushing judgment on Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war against Hamas. Photo: Debbie Hill/UPI/Shutterstock/NTB Show more
– Does not make rational decisions
The former prime minister is particularly critical of Netanyahu’s statements ABC News on Tuesday, suggesting that Israel will have overall security responsibility for Gaza “for an indefinite period” after the ongoing war with Hamas ends.
– We’ll see what happens if we don’t have it. If we do not have security responsibility, we will see outbreaks of Hamas terror on a scale we could not have imagined, Netanyahu said in the interview.
Olmert believes that the Israeli prime minister is so worried about his own position that he no longer makes rational decisions.
The statement also caused concern in the United States, where Foreign Minister Antony Blinken was clear in his warning to Israel about any thoughts of reoccupying the Gaza Strip.
– There will be no re-occupation of Gaza after the conflict is over, was Blinken’s clear message on Wednesday.
Blinken also added that the US opposes any Israeli attempt to recapture parts of the Gaza Strip, as well as “attempts to blockade or besiege Gaza”.
WAR: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a statement on Saturday morning, October 7, that the country is at war. Video: X Show more
Could end up in prison
Several experts have pointed out that Netanyahu’s political career hangs in the balance – and that he could end up behind bars after the war.
In the weeks and months before the war, Netanyahu was met with harsh criticism and mass protests at home, as a result of the government’s controversial judicial reform.
The proposed changes to the law have caused concern about a weakened Israeli judiciary and an almost absolute power for the politicians.
Critics also believe that the judicial reform is tailored for Netanyahu to ensure that he does not end up in prison for corruption charges, for which he was indicted in 2019.
– The law has not yet been adopted. This means that when the war is over, there will be a fierce demand for the Prime Minister to resign. I don’t think he will survive this political crisis. It actually means that he goes from being prime minister to most likely ending up in prison, Middle East expert Hilde Henriksen Waage previously told Dagbladet.
She is professor of history at the University of Oslo (UiO) and senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Research (Prio).
2023-11-09 07:41:15
#bad #shape
