Israel's PM Ehud Olmert comes to Britain tomorrow; interview with the Independent

Dana Olmert at demonstration

PM's daughter protests Gaza killings

Dana Olmert takes part in left-wing demonstration outside army chief's house; protesters call Halutz 'murderer,' declare 'intifada shall prevail.' Meanwhile, human rights groups send letter to PM, defense minister, calling on them to stop war crimes in territories

Dana Olmert, the daughter of Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, also took part in the demonstration.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3261125,00.html

Ehud Olmert: 'I can't afford to make mistakes'

Ehud Olmert comes to Britain tomorrow on a visit overshadowed by Mahmoud Abbas's call for a Palestinian referendum on a two-state solution. But Donald Macintyre finds Israel's new Prime Minister in defiant mood

Published: 10 June 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article754412.ece

Did he, first, accept Israeli responsibility for the fact that his country's image in Europe had changed markedly, and not for the better, in the generation since 1967 when its populations had seemed overwhelmingly behind Israel during the Six Day War?

"Of course there is a certain responsibility." But the generation that cheered on Israel had "largely disappeared". Instead, a new generation "doesn't remember that Israel was not in the territories altogether, that we never wanted to be in the territories, that we never really wanted to take over and occupy and territory and that it was imposed upon us by the aggression of the Palestinians and the Egyptians and the Syrians."

And they "didn't remember" that the "Palestinians want Israel to return back into boundaries the width of which is 12km, that can be cut into pieces within minutes. And they are also not familiar enough with the historic facts to remember that the Palestinians brought it upon themselves when throughout history they always refused to make peace when peace was possible. I hope that with the apparent desire of Israel to pull out of territories, to separate from the Palestinians and help create a two-state solution, that this attitude will change."


What about specifics? Will the withdrawals, for example, include the hardline settlers in Hebron? "I understand the curiosity which you manifest and I am not certain that I want to satisfy all of your curiosity at this point."

No, he isn't yet saying he is confident of European agreement to his unilateral plan. "I just said I would do everything in my power to convince the Europeans and I want Tony Blair and I want Jacques Chirac and I want Angela Merkel, I want all of the other political leaders in Europe to understand that I care for what they say. I want to listen to them. I will seek their advice. I will seek their opinion. The days that Israel was separated from Europe are gone. There is a new basis for relations that I want to cultivate and to strengthen."

Had the former head of Mossad Ephraim Halevy not said that sooner or later Israel would have to talk to Hamas? And might not this resonate with a British Government that had talked to Sinn Fein?

"I have to say with the utmost respect to Mr Halevy that this will not have been his first mistake in understanding the dynamics of this situation. But, the difference between Sinn Fein, for instance, and us is that Sinn Fein ultimately wanted to accept a peaceful solution and agreed to the basic, some kind of basic principles that were outlined for such negotiations to take place. You can't count on the other side and say, look, you always have to acquiesce with the more extreme elements because they will prevail. If you accept that they will prevail, you help them prevail. And what I say is that there is a choice given to the Palestinian people. Is it indispensable, is it obvious that they can only choose the more extreme element amongst them or that there can be changes? I don't say that I expect all of the Palestinians to be different from Hamas but why do we have to accept from the beginning that the Palestinians will always be ruled by the more extreme elements such as Hamas instead of by more moderate elements that already compromised?"

One thing Mr Olmert will certainly raise in London is the academic boycott of Israel. "It's the highest degree of hypocrisy, narrow-mindedness and maybe even worse. I don't know that they would have done it in another country. The fact that they are doing it against the state of Israel, against us, I think smells of something that I prefer even not to call by its accurate name."

I ask how much influence Mr Olmert's wife, Aliza, famously more of a left-winger than her husband, has had on him? "I know it's not common, but it so happens we have a happy marriage and I very much love my wife." In such circumstances, he says, "there is always a danger that there will be some influence and there has been some influence by her because she has her opinions and I have mine and so that in many different ways I have influenced her also. But you guys don't care for what influences I had on her. You're more interested on the influences that she had on me. So first of all, I admit, she did have a lot of influence on me and it certainly is reflected in some of my present positions and I'm very proud about it."

There is one thing, at any rate, he will enjoy talking about to Mr Blair - a "fantastic guy" whose "only weakness" he says is his support for "the Magpies" - Newcastle United. Where some politicians affect an interest in football, Mr Olmert is a genuine fanatic who follows Manchester United nearly as closely as his beloved Betar Jerusalem. "I think that Tony Blair and myself are certainly wishing for Wayne Rooney to fully recover in order to represent the British national team. I heard Sven Goran Eriksson just say the other day that while everyone is important there is no one like Wayne Rooney and so I hope for England that he will recover fully". More than a little wistfully he added: " I can only say I regret the fact that Israel has not qualified for the finals because that would have changed everything in our lives here."