Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (2006-2009) issued the strongest denunciation yet of Israel’s murderous policy in Gaza by an official, in an op-ed in Haaretz on May 27. Under the title “Enough Is Enough. Israel Is Committing War Crimes,” Olmert acknowledges what is obvious to much of the world, that Netanyahu’s policy of total devastation of Gaza and killing civilians is not a justified war.
He opens by writing, “The government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success. Never since its establishment has the State of Israel waged such a war. The criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel’s history in this area, too.” While he refrained from having called this a “genocide” in the past, he has come to see the present operation Gideons’ Chariots as having “nothing to do with legitimate war goals.” Instead, he charges, it has become a “private political war.”
He describes the outcome of present operations in Gaza as “a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians.” This is not the result of decisions made by IDF units, but the result of “government policy—knowingly, evilly, malicious, irresponsibly dictated. Yes. Israel is committing war crimes.”
Though Olmert has been critical of Netanyahu in the past, he has always said that the military was conducting a moral, legitimate attack on a deadly terrorist enemy. The language in his op-ed represents a sharp turn in Olmert’s criticisms.
