Prime Minster Olmert drops a bombshell. Too bad it’s a dud

In his Rosh HaShana interview less than two weeks ago, caretaker Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, made statements that were at once remarkable and surreal. Remarkable - because Olmert was more realistic and was more explicit about the price of peace than any Israeli Prime Minister before him. Surreal - because Olmert's remarks were timed to have the least possible practical effect on the Israeli political system.

First, here are a few select quotes from the interview:

• On territorial withdrawal from the West Bank: "We have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, meaning that we will withdraw in practice from nearly all of the territories, if not from all of them ... including in east Jerusalem". "We will leave a percentage of these territories in our hands, but will have to give the Palestinians a similar percentage [from within the State of Israel], because without that there will be no peace."

• On the ‘indivisibility' of Jerusalem: "I'm the first one who wanted to enforce Israeli sovereignty on the whole city. I admit this ...I am not trying to justify retroactively what I did for 35 years. For a large portion of these years, I was unwilling to look at reality in all its depth."

• On peace with Syria: "I'd like to see if there is one serious person in the State of Israel who believes it is possible to make peace with the Syrians without eventually giving up the Golan Heights."

• On the connection between land and security: "I read what our (reserve) generals say ... For them, everything is tanks and land and controlling territory ... and this hill and that hill. All of these things are valueless ... The real threat that we face today ... is rockets and missiles. We need an answer for them, but we won't reach an answer by arguing over 200 meters."

• On action against Iran: "The assumption that America, Russia and China and Britain and Germany don't know how to handle the Iranians, that we, the Israelis know, we will do, we will act, is an example of a loss of proportions. We will act within the envelope of the international system, where someone else - not we - are leading it."

On one level, perhaps, Olmert should be congratulated for continuing his effort to delegitimize the "Greater Israel" fallacy. Far from an isolated event, his interview comes on the heels of a statement that, "Israel's future does not lie in the West Bank", as well as similar remarks made over the past two years.

Unfortunately, as a recent Peace Now Settlement Watch report has pointed out, Olmert's dovish words have never matched his expansionist behavior: His term as Prime Minister has seen settlement construction grow in leaps and bounds.

Just as importantly, Olmert saw fit to share his viewpoints on Israel's future with the public only after he no longer had the ability to act on them. As Meretz MK Yossi Beilin pointed out: "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert committed an unpardonable sin in that he has revealed his true positions regarding Israel's national interest only when he has nothing to lose." Had Olmert made these comments on the eve of the Jewish year 5768, not 5769, he would have positioned himself as a leader. Making these comments only after his resignation, Olmert seems to prefer playing the role of sage commentator to that of brave statesman.

And just in case anyone might mistakenly believe that Olmert's words are in any way connected to Israeli government policy, the caretaker Prime Minister delivered this unambiguous clarification earlier this week: "The views I expressed in the interview ... are my views. I am the only person committed to them. This is my opinion. This does not compel Ms. [Tzipi] Livni," Israel's Foreign Minister and new Kadima leader, who is likely to replace Olmert if she manages to put together a new coalition government. Olmert's comment followed Livni's own disavowal of his remarks.

Perhaps if one day Ehud Olmert is cleared of all the criminal suspicions against him and makes his way back to the world of Israeli politics (an admittedly unlikely scenario), he will be able to translate his words into deeds. In the meantime, Olmert's Rosh HaShana interview does little more than paint a picture of "what could have been" and remind us that Israelis, like Israel's neighbors, are too often guilty of squandering opportunities to advance towards peace.