Olmert: Unilateralism policy has been a failure

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently expressed his disappointment with the results of Israel's two unilateral withdrawals, saying that the violence that broke out in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in recent months convinced him that there is no point in any future unilateral moves of this kind.

In an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua prior to his departure Monday for a three-day visit to China, the prime minister said that he believes in the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. In order to achieve this, he added, Israel will have to withdraw from a large part of the territories that it controls today, and "we are ready to do this."

"A year ago, I believed that we would be able to do this unilaterally," the prime minister said, referring to a withdrawal from the West Bank. "However, it should be said that our experience in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip is not encouraging. We pulled out of Lebanon unilaterally, and see what happened. We pulled out of the Gaza Strip completely, to the international border, and every day they are firing Qassam rockets at Israelis."

Olmert's conclusion from these experiences was that "under the existing circumstances, it would be more practical to achieve a two-state solution through negotiations rather than withdrawal."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/811319.html

[Chulanowa]

1. Olmert must not be paying attention.

They pulled out of Lebanon unilaterally - except for the Shabaa farms area of the country, where almost all of the strife leading up to the July war took place. This is where those two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped from. Irael responds by flattening any part of Lebanon it can see, and hten proclaims the withdrawal a failure?

[OleSkoolDemocrat68]

3. do you really think shebaa farms...

...has anything to do with this? If Israel gave that up, do you think Hezbollah would have packed their bags and retreated up north, never to be heard from again - ergo, no more strife with Israel coming from Lebanon?

[Ken Burch]

2. So Olmert FINALLY gets it that not dealing with the Palestinians isn't going to solve this?

How do you say "duhhhh" in Hebrew?