Olmert lashes out at Syria and defends Bush
On a table facing his desk, Ehud Olmert keeps photographs of three Israeli soldiers whose capture by Islamic militants in Gaza and Lebanon sparked the latest Middle East crisis.
“Israel is not afraid of fighting,” the Israeli prime minister said today in his wood-panelled office, sitting under images of Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Rabin.
Olmert lashed out at Syria, condemned Hezbollah, defended President Bush and predicted the crisis’ outcome will “create a new momentum between us and the Palestinians”.
He also said that Isral’s three-week-old offensive against Hezbollah will stop only once a robust international peacekeeping force is in place in southern Lebanon, his clearest indication to date that Israel would resist European pressure for an immediate ceasefire.
As Olmert spoke, 10,000 Israeli troops staged a massive new ground offensive in southern Lebanon, seizing five Hezbollah fighters, and the guerrillas fired a record number of rockets into Israel. The three-week-old conflict has already killed at least 540 Lebanese and 55 Israelis.
Olmert called the captured Hezbollah members “tasty fishes”.
The Israeli leader spoke calmly of his determination to press ahead with the offensive, which he said has already significantly “upset all the strategic plans of Iran and Hezbollah in the Middle East”.
He said the release of two Israeli servicemen captured by Hezbollah on July 12 must be unconditional, signalling Israel does not favour a prisoner swap.
After the Hezbollah raid, Olmert said the expectation was that Israel “will engage in this typical oriental bazaar, negotiations with Hezbollah for the return of prisoners. No more.”
“Israel will stop fighting when the international force will be present in the south of Lebanon,” he said.
“We can’t stop before because if there will not be a presence of a very effective and robust military international force, Hezbollah will be there and we will have achieved nothing.”
Washington is leading efforts to put together a beefed-up international force that could help the Lebanese army take control of south Lebanon after Hezbollah is pushed northward, but it’s far from clear how long it will take to put the force together, and sharp disagreements have emerged between Washington and Europe on the issue, with the latter favouring an immediate ceasefire even before the force is deployed.
In the interview, Olmert said the force should also take up positions along the Lebanon-Syria border “to prevent the smuggling of arms from Syria to Lebanon as they are doing now”.
He had harsh words for Syrian leaders, calling them “reckless”, “immature” and promoters of terror.
Turning to Syria to help solve the crisis would be useless, he said.
“I don’t see that Syria is ready or is even prepared to avail itself to any act of moderation,” Olmert said.
Some Middle East observers have said that Syria would be a good address for talks because of that country’s sway over Hezbollah and the fact that its alliance with Iran, another major Hezbollah supporter, is based more on convenience than shared ideology.
Olmert dismissed criticism of US President George Bush’s refusal to talk to Syria or any other regime he dislikes.
“He (Bush) is doing the most obvious thing. He’s fighting the enemies of freedom. He’s fighting the enemies of democracy and he’s fighting supporters of terror.”
Olmert also defended Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, which have killed more than 460 civilians, saying Hezbollah is doing whatever it can to kill Israeli civilians while Israel is trying to avoid killing innocent Lebanese.
“Every time we kill a civilian we consider it as a failure and we are very sorry for it,” he said.
Israel’s simultaneous offensives against Islamic militants in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas-linked militants separately captured an Israeli soldier on June 25, have raised questions about Olmert’s ability to go forward with what was supposed to be the cornerstone of his governing agenda: withdrawing from the West Bank in order to secure a long-term Jewish majority for Israel.
“I’ll surprise you,” Olmert said.
“I genuinely believe that the outcome of the present (conflict) and the emergence of a new order that will provide more stability and will defeat the forces of terror will help create the necessary environment that will allow me…to create a new momentum between us and the Palestinians.”
“We want to separate from the Palestinians,” he added. “I’m ready to do it. I’m ready to cope with these demands. It’s not easy. It’s very difficult, but we are elected to our positions to do things and not to sit idle.”
Olmert, a lawyer and former mayor of Jerusalem, has been in power for only four months, taking over from Ariel Sharon, who suffered a devastating stroke last January.
“It’s true that I am a new prime minister, relatively speaking,” he said. “Though in Israel, every day is like a year in other places.”
| Related Stories: |
|
