Lame Duck

Anger greets Olmert's concessions on Jerusalem, Syria and the West Bank.

Leslie Susser
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

A

Rosh Hashanah-eve interview
in which outgoing Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert said
Israel should give up the Golan Heights for
peace with Syria and nearly all of the West
Bank for peace with the Palestinians has
sparked a political storm in Israel.
Prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni,
who is set to succeed Olmert as soon as
she forms a coalition government, quickly
distanced herself from most of Olmert's
key pronouncements, which included an
assertion that it would be megalomaniacal
for Israel to attack Iran unilaterally.
Politicians on the right lambasted
Olmert for his dovish message and left-

wingers slammed him for not going public
with his vision before he was a lame duck.
Some Israeli analysts saw evidence in
Olmert's transformation from one-time
super-hawk to unmitigated dove of a final
collapse of the ideology of Greater Israel,
which advocates holding on to as much
conquered territory as possible.
Olmert, who is stepping down amid a
corruption investigation, in the interview
published last week by the Israeli daily
Yediot Achronot made the following points:
•It is presumptuous to think Israel can
stop Iran's nuclear drive when powers such
as the United States, Russia, China, Britain
and Germany seem unable to do so.
• Israel has a very short window of time
in which it can take "historic steps" in its
relations with the Palestinians and the
Syrians.
• For peace with the Palestinians, Israel

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will have to withdraw from
most of the West Bank,
including eastern Jerusalem,
and grant compensation on
a one-to-one basis for what-
ever land it keeps. "Without
this, there won't be peace he
insisted.
• For peace with Syria,
Israel will have to return the
Golan Heights.
• Israel is very close to
agreement both with the
Ehud Olmert
Palestinians and Syria, and
if Olmert had stayed on he would have had
a good chance of closing the deals.
• The main security problem Israel faces
today is missiles, and having the border
a few hundred yards one way or the other
won't make any difference.
•Years of conservative thinking by the

Israeli establishment have undermined
peace prospects.
"When I listen to you, I know why we
didn't make peace with the Palestinians
and the Syrians for 40 years and why

Lame Duck on page A30

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October 9 • 2008

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