Olmert goes in to bat for Netanyahu
Former Israeli PM Olmert defended Netanyahu following former US President Donald Trump’s explicit remarks critiquing him: “Trump is pathetic, it’s crazy”.
Ehud Olmert
Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert commented today at the 13th annual Leadership Dialogue on Israel-UK-Australia Relations on the recently released recordings of former US President Donald Trump, on which he was heard criticising the current head of the opposition and former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for the recorded video he sent to then President-elect Joe Biden congratulating him on his victory in the 2020 US presidential election.
Former Israeli PM Olmert defended Netanyahu, and critiqued former US President Trump: “He’s pathetic”
Additionally, in the background of the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna between Iran and the P5+1, former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert expressed strong opposition to former US President Trump’s withdrawal – with encouragement from former Israeli PM Netanyahu – from the JCPOA: “The American withdrawal from the nuclear deal was a major strategic error that moves Iran closer to a nuclear weapon”
Albert Dadon
Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said: “Everyone knows my opinion of Netanyahu. I am not fond of him, I don’t appreciate him, I don’t trust him, I don’t believe in his integrity. But Trump’s interview is a living example of a man for whom everything is personal. Everything is judged according to his own personal interests. The fact that Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his election victory shows that he acted as we should expect the Israeli PM to act – to congratulate the duly elected American president. He even hesitated in releasing his congratulatory video and waited until it became an embarrassment that the State of Israel, the stalwart ally of the US, would not congratulate the President-elect of the US on his election victory. Trump said that the fact that Netanyahu congratulated Biden is a betrayal of the special relationship between Israel and the US; that is crazy and beyond understanding, he is a pathetic man.”
Olmert’s comments were made during the opening session of the initiative of the Leadership Dialogue on Israel-UK-Australia Relations an initiative of the International Institute for Strategic Leadership Dialogue, founded by the Australian Jewish philanthropist and businessman Albert Dadon.
The opening session was a former PM roundtable discussion that included former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and former Australian PM Tony Abbott.
Who cares what Trump thinks? All these former politicians in the USA and Israel should just fade away. They are all yesterdays people.