A former prime minister of Israel has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of needlessly prolonging the Gaza offensive and blocking the path to peace while kidnapped hostages are left to die.
In a scathing condemnation, Ehud Olmert charged that Mr Netanyahu’s “arrogance” and “manipulation” had led to catastrophic security failures, allowing the Hamas attack which triggered the current conflict.
He also warned that right-wing “messianics and extremists” brought into Israel’s governing coalition by the prime minister, are blocking the vital need for a settlement and have plans to cleanse Palestinians from their vision of a “Greater Israel”.
Mr Olmert’s strident criticism came as Mr Netanyahu snubbed the latest international attempt at a ceasefire, declaring that the war will continue until complete victory. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, left his fifth visit to the Middle East in the last four months with relations between the Israeli government and Washington reportedly at their worst since the conflict began.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A former prime minister of Israel has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of needlessly prolonging the Gaza offensive and blocking the path to peace while kidnapped hostages are left to die.
In a scathing condemnation, Ehud Olmert charged that Mr Netanyahu’s “arrogance” and “manipulation” had led to catastrophic security failures, allowing the Hamas attack which triggered the current conflict.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Olmert said: “Israel has received huge support from the West, from Rishi Sunak in Britain, from Olaf Scholz in Germany, Emmanuel Macron in France and, of course, from Joe Biden, who I got to know well.
However, he later became the chief architect of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and came close to reaching an agreement on a two-state solution with Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas before it fell apart at the last.
He was also responsible, Mr Olmert added, for freeing more than 1,000 Hamas prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar, who went on to become the group’s head in Gaza, in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
For these people in Netanyahu’s government, messianics and extremists, Gaza is just a preliminary stage of a bigger plan, to get rid of Palestinians from the West Bank and annex it,” said Mr Olmert.
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