Ehud Olmert Quotes
When armed people from Hamas and armed people from Fatah are standing opposite each other, there is more likely to be a confrontation amongst them.
Olmert, Ehud. Interview. Haaretz, 12 Oct. 2006.
Hamas had, in a bloody armed coup, seized control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority, and refusing to negotiate with the Israelis undermined the Palestinian hopes of peace talks with Israel. The PA could no longer speak for the Palestinians. Hamas a particularly aggressive terrorist organization whose charter called for the death of all Jews in the world, wanted to force the Palestinian Authority to join them in terrorist attacks on Israel. The Palestinians had renounced terrorism and violence. The Hamas fighters were planning to fire rockets at Israel from the West Bank and launching other terrorist attacks against Israel, hoping that Israel would retaliate against the Palestinian Authority by attacking the West Bank which had not been destroyed at all while Gaza had lost much of its infrastructure and 2,000 lives. The Palestinian Authority was not about to let themselves get sucked into a war that they could not possible win and was contrary to the policies of Prime Minister Abbas and his elected government.
Hamas became an extra legal armed force in each Arab country where they established an infrastructure. The governments usually did not want to take them on and bring Hammas under control. In Lebanon, Hamas became a major political force protected by the Syrian Army which had occupied Lebanon.
This is one of the only times where a Palestinian politician criticized another Palestinian group for its violence and terrorism.
He was referring to Bosnia and other nations where civil war seems to break out over and over again—albeit much stimulated by outside forces.
Actually, this is a relatively new phenomenon. Before this, it was the Western Colonialists who were to blame. Before that it was the Ottoman Turks who occupied their land, and before that it was the Christian Crusaders. Since the Arab countries have started their decline from one of the most advanced people and cultures of the world to one of the least, they have always found some external source to blame. Many scholars observe that that process of blaming others and not looking inward and avoiding the reforms that other religions and cultures went through is among the biggest reasons for their decline.
At the time YaAlon was Rabin’s Chief of Intelligence.
Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006. Between his first and second stints as a cabinet member, he served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003. After serving as PM he was sentenced to serve a prison term over convictions for accepting bribes and for obstruction of justice during his terms as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade minister.
