Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking Tuesday night at the closing session of the prestigious Herzliya Conference, outlined his view of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The new chairman of the Kadima Party essentially said he sees no future for a Jewish Yesha (Judea and Samaria).
With the national elections only two months away, the Likud and Labor Parties were quick to point out what they felt were the deficiencies in Olmert's speech.
Labor's Yitzchak Herzog said Olmert had "merely downloaded Labor's platform from the internet, leaving out the social issues."
A Likud spokesman said, "Olmert hid his true plans for a unilateral withdrawal from much of Judea and Samaria (Yesha), the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem - a position he has expressed many times in the past years."
"The dramatic move before us," Olmert said, "is to re-form our borders to ensure a Jewish majority... In order to guarantee the existence of the Jewish home, we will not be able to continue and rule over the areas in which a Palestinian population lives... Israel will maintain the security areas, the Jewish settlement blocs, and those places that have supreme significance for the Jewish nation... There can be no Jewish state without the capital Jerusalem in its center."
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said afterwards, "Olmert's speech is the beginning of the end of the State of Israel... If we cannot live in areas where what he calls 'Palestinian' population lives, then we will quickly have to part from the Galilee, the Triangle [Um el-Fahm], and the Negev, and the division of Jerusalem is just around the corner. Olmert will be able to say: 'In Herzliya, I destroyed the Jewish State.'"
Taking sharp aim at the population of Judea and Samaria, Olmert said, "The Government of Israel will not be deterred by any threat of a law-breaking minority... I have instructed the security forces to raze all the unauthorized outposts in Judea and Samaria."
Settling all of Judea and Samaria does not jibe with preserving Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, Olmert said. "We hope that they [the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority] will give up on some of their dreams, just as we have given up some of ours," said the Kadima prime ministerial candidate.
"In the name of the Government of Israel," Olmert said, "I say that we will fulfill all the Road Map commitments we took upon ourselves, and we demand that the leadership in Ramallah do the same."
Other reactions to the speech:
The Yesha Council said Olmert's remarks were "laced with an anti-Semitic tone towards the Jews of Yesha. In the Middle Ages, the Jews spread the Black Plague by poisoning the wells and murdering Christian children for their blood for matzas; in the 20th century, the Jews took over the world's economy; and now, the settlers are the reason for all of Israel's problems."
Council spokesperson Emily Amrusi noted, "The same Olmert who emphasized in his speech that he was offering his hand in peace to murderers, has ordered his underlings over the past days not to conduct dialogue with the Yesha Council. It has never happened before that the government simply ignores the Yesha leadership and doesn't talk with them... He offers gestures and benefits to terrorists, but wages war on Jewish settlement, essentially naming us as the enemy."
MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union): "With this shallow and hesitant speech, Olmert is trying to convince us that he is the new Sharon. But behind the fog of his press advisors, a clear plan is hiding: expulsion and destruction of Judea and Samaria, the division of Jerusalem, a return to the '67 borders, and the abandonment of Israel's security."
Benny Kashriel, the Mayor of Maaleh Adumim, just to the east of Jerusalem, said, "Olmert's promise to preserve Jerusalem will be kept only if he reinforces the settlement belt around Jerusalem. He must allow contiguous construction from Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim in order to stop the Palestinian choke-hold around the capital, and he must approve the E-1 construction plan [between the two cities]."
MK Sha'ul Yahalom (National Religious Party): "Olmert copied Sharon's speech from two years ago - and we have seen what that speech led us to: a rainfall of Kassam rockets, no security for the Jews living adjacent to Gaza, and no response from Israel."
With the national elections only two months away, the Likud and Labor Parties were quick to point out what they felt were the deficiencies in Olmert's speech.
Labor's Yitzchak Herzog said Olmert had "merely downloaded Labor's platform from the internet, leaving out the social issues."
A Likud spokesman said, "Olmert hid his true plans for a unilateral withdrawal from much of Judea and Samaria (Yesha), the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem - a position he has expressed many times in the past years."
"The dramatic move before us," Olmert said, "is to re-form our borders to ensure a Jewish majority... In order to guarantee the existence of the Jewish home, we will not be able to continue and rule over the areas in which a Palestinian population lives... Israel will maintain the security areas, the Jewish settlement blocs, and those places that have supreme significance for the Jewish nation... There can be no Jewish state without the capital Jerusalem in its center."
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said afterwards, "Olmert's speech is the beginning of the end of the State of Israel... If we cannot live in areas where what he calls 'Palestinian' population lives, then we will quickly have to part from the Galilee, the Triangle [Um el-Fahm], and the Negev, and the division of Jerusalem is just around the corner. Olmert will be able to say: 'In Herzliya, I destroyed the Jewish State.'"
Taking sharp aim at the population of Judea and Samaria, Olmert said, "The Government of Israel will not be deterred by any threat of a law-breaking minority... I have instructed the security forces to raze all the unauthorized outposts in Judea and Samaria."
Settling all of Judea and Samaria does not jibe with preserving Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, Olmert said. "We hope that they [the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority] will give up on some of their dreams, just as we have given up some of ours," said the Kadima prime ministerial candidate.
"In the name of the Government of Israel," Olmert said, "I say that we will fulfill all the Road Map commitments we took upon ourselves, and we demand that the leadership in Ramallah do the same."
Other reactions to the speech:
The Yesha Council said Olmert's remarks were "laced with an anti-Semitic tone towards the Jews of Yesha. In the Middle Ages, the Jews spread the Black Plague by poisoning the wells and murdering Christian children for their blood for matzas; in the 20th century, the Jews took over the world's economy; and now, the settlers are the reason for all of Israel's problems."
Council spokesperson Emily Amrusi noted, "The same Olmert who emphasized in his speech that he was offering his hand in peace to murderers, has ordered his underlings over the past days not to conduct dialogue with the Yesha Council. It has never happened before that the government simply ignores the Yesha leadership and doesn't talk with them... He offers gestures and benefits to terrorists, but wages war on Jewish settlement, essentially naming us as the enemy."
MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union): "With this shallow and hesitant speech, Olmert is trying to convince us that he is the new Sharon. But behind the fog of his press advisors, a clear plan is hiding: expulsion and destruction of Judea and Samaria, the division of Jerusalem, a return to the '67 borders, and the abandonment of Israel's security."
Benny Kashriel, the Mayor of Maaleh Adumim, just to the east of Jerusalem, said, "Olmert's promise to preserve Jerusalem will be kept only if he reinforces the settlement belt around Jerusalem. He must allow contiguous construction from Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim in order to stop the Palestinian choke-hold around the capital, and he must approve the E-1 construction plan [between the two cities]."
MK Sha'ul Yahalom (National Religious Party): "Olmert copied Sharon's speech from two years ago - and we have seen what that speech led us to: a rainfall of Kassam rockets, no security for the Jews living adjacent to Gaza, and no response from Israel."