Monday, May 22, 2006

Count the Times Olmert Fibs about his Policies

From the Wolf Blitzer CNN interview:-


BLITZER: You and your coalition government have supported a plan over the next several years to begin a unilateral disengagement or withdrawal from parts of the West Bank, just as Israel withdrew from Gaza, as you know. Many, including President Abbas, many in Europe, even here in the United States, are condemning this. The French foreign minister said on Wednesday, "It's unacceptable that a border declared unilaterally would be accepted by the world." How committed are you to this unilateral disengagement from the West Bank, sort of along the lines of the wall that Israel has been and is constructing?

OLMERT: I met yesterday afternoon with the French foreign minister. He's a very pleasant gentleman, and I don't remember him saying the same things about these ideas that you just now quoted. But I understand, and this is very natural, that there are many who prefer negotiations.

I'll share with you my desire. I also prefer negotiations. There is nothing that I'd love to do more than negotiate with Palestinians. This is my desire. This is my dream. This is my mission.

I was elected prime minister of Israel on that sole agenda, that I'm prepared to negotiate with the Palestinians in order to advance further agreements that will lead Israel into a new phase of understanding with the Palestinians, that I will help Israel ultimately have borders that we don't have for so many years, and I will separate us from the Palestinians so that we will live our lives and they will live their lives alongside the state of Israel in their own independent state.

There is nothing that I want more. There is nothing that I will devote my time and energies more than to try and establish the basis for negotiations between us and the Palestinians.

What we said, which was taken and blown out of any proportion, is that if, unfortunately, Palestinians would not mature to the point where they can negotiate with us, largely because their government is a terrorist government and they are unwilling and unable to accept the basic, fundamental principles that were set by the Quartet, by the U.S. president, by the Europeans, and therefore, we may not be able to conduct negotiations, then the question will be, what are we going to do? Wait until the Palestinians will change? How long? One year, two years, three years, five years, 10 years? And in the meantime, what? More terror, more innocent people killed, more victims, more blood, more suffering, more pain?

Or shall we try to do something, certainly not unilaterally, but through negotiations with our friends, with the most important powers of the world, with the U.S. president, with the Europeans, with Egypt, with Jordan? And we'll try to establish a basis upon which an understanding of our future borders can be reached. And that's what I will be trying to do.

BLITZER: The former president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, wrote an article in the newspaper USA Today on Tuesday in which he said this. He said, "It is inconceivable that any Palestinian Arab leader or any objective member of the international community could accept this illegal action as a permanent solution to the continuing altercation in the Middle East. This confiscation of land is to be carried out without resorting to peace talks with the Palestinians and in direct contravention of the road map for peace, which President Bush helped to initiate and has strongly supported." Jimmy Carter strongly condemning any unilateral Israeli drawing of lines on the West Bank.

OLMERT: I have enormous respect for President Carter, who come to visit me every now and then. When he's in Israel, I think some of his statements are different than the ones that he writes when he's far away. But I think that the basic point is this: Shall we negotiate with a terrorist government? I don't know that there is one serious American representative that will advise Israel to sit with a terrorist government and negotiate with them.

I'm proud of your president, President George W. Bush, who has the courage and the determination to lead the world into the fight against terrorists across the world. I share with him entirely this position. And I'm not certain that I share the position, the implicit position, of President Carter that we should negotiate with a terrorist government.

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