'A country that's fun to live in'
By Aluf Benn and Yossi Verter Haaretz 10 March 2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/692704.html

[IMRA:

Reality check:

Olmert: "The day before yesterday we carried out a targeted interception in
Gaza. The day before that we did another targeted interception. Not a
critical remark, not a hint of a critical remark, has come from anywhere in
the world."

UK GOVERNMENT CONDEMNS ISRAELI AIR FORCE ATTACK IN GAZA
www.britishhighcommission.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1064571766375&a=KArticle&aid=1140688102904
]

Tell us, we asked Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, must a leader give a
personal example to his nation?

"Definitely," he says, with a touch of suspicion.

What will be your personal example to the nation? we wanted to know.

"I don't want to sound pompous," he said, using the English word. "First of
all, a leader has to lead. To be a person who has the strength, the courage
and the ability to make difficult decisions and take responsibility. This is
what is expected of the person who heads a state. A leader has to radiate
self-discipline, diligence and devotion. Many things have been said about me
over the years, and it has never been said that I am not devoted to what I
do. I invest my entire soul in the responsibility that is incumbent upon me,
and that is how I will conduct myself as prime minister."

Take us to the last day of your term. How will the country you leave behind
you look?

"It will be a different country," he replied swiftly. "In different borders.
It will be separate from the vast majority of the Palestinian population. It
will be a country with less external violence and more personal security. A
country that is dealing more effectively with the social ills," and here he
takes a short break. "It will be," he says, "a country that is fun to live
in. That people will not only love it, but will also love to say they love
it."

This sounds like Green Leaf, the party that wants to legalize marijuana, we
said.

Marking the borders

This week Ehud Olmert decided to dispel the fog that has covered his
positions ever since, in the middle of the night, he had to take on the
authority of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In an interview Wednesday, the
chairman of Kadima and the leading candidate for prime minister according to
the public opinion polls, presented his plan for matters of state. There is
no mistaking his message: Olmert is preparing the Israeli public for a
withdrawal from most of the territories of the West Bank and for setting a
new border behind the separation fence, which will surround the large
settlement blocs and "united" Jerusalem. Establishing the border, with broad
domestic and international agreement, will be the main task of the next
government, in his opinion.

"I believe," says Olmert, "that in four years' time Israel will be
disengaged from the vast majority of the Palestinian population, within new
borders, with the route of the fence - which until now has been a security
fence - adjusted to the new line of the permanent borders. It could be that
there will be cases in which we move the fence eastward, and it could be
that there will be cases in which we move it westward, in accordance with a
line that we will agree upon. We will take a crucial step forward in the
shaping of Israel as a Jewish state, in which there is a solid and stable
Jewish majority that is not at risk."

If he wins the election, Olmert intends to embark immediately on a "domestic
dialogue" about Israel's permanent borders "with all of the elements that
are relevant to a decision like this," he says.

Including the Yesha Council?

"Of course. They are an important part of the Israeli public. We must not
give up on dialogue, [we must try to] narrow the differences of opinion with
them and perhaps even reach a consensus. Anyone who thinks like I do, that
it is necessary to hold negotiations with our enemies, certainly believes
that first of all it is necessary to hold negotiations with ourselves."

Olmert is careful not to lock himself into pre-election promises. Not
regarding people, and not regarding decisions. He refuses to say, for
example, whether he will go for a plebiscite on the borders. It is too early
to contemplate this, according to him.

"The principle that will guide me in conducting this dialogue," says Olmert,
"is convergence into the large settlement blocks and the thickening of those
blocs. At this time I do not want to go into a precise definition of them,
but everyone knows that Gush Etzion will remain inside the state of Israel
and that the Jerusalem envelope will be part of the state, and Ma'aleh
Adumim."

Will you build in Area E-1, between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, despite
the U.S. objections?

"Of course. After all, it is unthinkable that we will talk about Ma'aleh
Adumim as part of the State of Israel and leave it like an island or an
isolated enclave. It is completely clear that the contiguity between
Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim will be built up. This is clear both to the
Palestinians and to the Americans. In my opinion, on this matter there is a
full consensus in Israel. Even Yossi Beilin, with whom I usually disagree
about everything, has said that Ma'aleh Adumim must remain inside Israel."

And the Jordan Valley?

"In any case, our security border will be along the Jordan. There are
strategic considerations for this that we cannot relinquish."

Alongside the domestic dialogue, Olmert intends to embark on talks with the
international community in order to enlist its support. In his opinion,
there is now a rare opportunity to achieve broad international agreement for
the permanent borders he is planning. The combination of the rise of Hamas
to power in the Palestinian Authority and the support Israel has received in
the wake of the disengagement from the Gaza Strip allows for obtaining
agreements that will be difficult to achieve in a few years.

The Bibi and Peretz options

Olmert pays the obligatory lip service to the road map and to dialogue with
the Palestinians, but it is evident that he does not seriously believe in
them and prefers that Israel carry out unilateral moves with U.S. and
European backing. He mentions again the "threshold conditions" for
negotiations with the Hamas government: a change in the movement's charter,
recognition of Israel's right to exist and the total cessation of terror
along with disarmament.

And how long will you wait for them to fulfill these demands?

"If we reach the conclusion after a reasonable amount of time - and this
will not be measured in years - that the Palestinians do not intend to act
according to these principles, the State of Israel will not be their
hostage. We are not prepared to wait without limits for this authority to
decide when it wants to swing us from terror to a kind of negotiations, and
then back to terror and back to negotiations. We experienced this during the
past 10 or 15 years and we haven't gained a thing from it. Every time we
decided to take the initiative, we have gained from it.

"There are two options," says Olmert, the one offered by Likud party
chairman MK Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu, which says in effect, "Let's go to war,
we'll occupy territories again, we'll go into the Gaza Strip, we'll go into
the towns in Judea and Samaria and we will have to call up reserves for
dozens of days a year in order to continue this endless war. And the one
offered by [Labor Party Chairman MK] Amir Peretz, which gives up in advance,
never mind whether it is Abu Mazen [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas], or not Abu
Mazen, let's kneel and run in the direction of the Palestinians. I am the
only one of the contenders who is coming to the public and giving it a clear
determination of borders."

Ever since the responsibility was transferred to him, Olmert has made a
point of coordinating his moves with the main players in the international
community. He attributes tremendous importance to personal acquaintance
among leaders, as a basis for diplomatic support.

"I know how to converse with Tony Blair, with whom I have developed an
excellent personal relationship, and with [Silvio] Berlusconi, and with
Angela Merkel, and I believe that I will also do so with Jacques Chirac,"
relates Olmert. "I have spoken with each of them several times since I
filled this position; I met with them in the past, and of course I will
conduct a very substantial dialogue with our greatest ally, President Bush."

The leaders of Egypt and Jordan are also his friends: "We have excellent
relations with King Abdullah and President Mubarak. Hardly a day goes by
when messages aren't transmitted from them to me or from me to them. The
intensiveness of the relations between us and the Jordanians is very great.
The king laughed when he read in one of the newspapers that there is a rift
between us, and I laughed too."

Can Major General Yair Naveh, whose remarks about the survival of the
Hashemite royal dynasty angered the Jordanians, continue in his position?

Olmert stamps his foot and his chair shakes. "The GOC Central Command said
things that should not have been said, but I am not holding a whip over
Israel Defense Forces officers. The things that he said in absolutely no
way, shape or form represent government policy, and when the king spoke to
me he said, come on, what are you upset about? Here, too, people sometimes
say things that shouldn't be said, ignore it. And I really think that this
was good advice."

The international community has not recognized the full withdrawal from Gaza
as "the end of the occupation." Why would it give backing to the partial
withdrawal you are proposing in the West Bank?

"We did not ask that the disengagement in Gaza be accepted along with
recognition of the issue of the Green Line. But for weeks, every day, we
have been carrying out targeted interception actions in the Gaza Strip, with
a stunning level of implementation and with a very high level of accuracy."

Does that include the Palestinian children who were killed this week?

"Of course this is a tragedy, (but) it was a one-time event from among some
10 interceptions that the IDF has carried out recently, and there is not a
single word of criticism anywhere in the world. And do you know why? Because
the disengagement gave us degrees of freedom in carrying out everyday
security activities, which we never had before."

For a moment he sounds like Sharon: "Yesterday we took the head of the Hamas
in Nablus out of his home and arrested him. In an action by a military unit,
of course. The day before yesterday we carried out a targeted interception
in Gaza. The day before that we did another targeted interception. Not a
critical remark, not a hint of a critical remark, has come from anywhere in
the world."

In the West Bank, too, "We will keep all the security options and we will
not give up a single one of them." Olmert talks a lot about the security
responsibility that has been placed on his shoulders as acting prime
minister. In internal discussions with the security establishment he has two
principles: The supremacy of the government level and the derivation of
measures on the ground from a clearly formulated strategy. He is not
enthusiastic about proposals raised by the IDF and the defense minister,
after the rise of the Hamas, to cut the Gaza Strip off from the Israeli
economy and infrastructure.

"I would not put tactical moves before strategic understanding. First of all
I would reach an understanding about our goals. The option of cutting Gaza
off from Judea and Samaria exists, but implementing it, if there is a need
to do so, is a function of the outline we will want to follow."

'Olmert or Hamas?'

Olmert looks tired. Again and again he rubs his eyes with his fists. On the
wall hang pictures of President Moshe Katsav and Sharon. But when we asked
him to speak about personal example, about leaders he admires, he spoke
mostly about Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin.

"Shamir and Begin belong to the generation of founders, the generation of
survivors," he said. "I have formative memories of them. I hope that I am
equal to them in my love of the people and love of the land. From Begin I
learned the tremendous importance of preferring the unity of the people over
everything else. From Shamir I learned how to be able to weigh and decide in
a totally cool-headed way in the most difficult situations. This,
incidentally, is something that Sharon excelled at. In the absence of this
quality, other leaders look today like people unworthy of serving as prime
minister."

Netanyahu has compared your economic record as mayor of Jerusalem to his own
as finance minister.

"When I was mayor and he was prime minister," said Olmert, "he went around
everywhere saying that I was the best mayor there has ever been. Not just in
Jerusalem. Altogether."

We wanted to ask another question or two about Netanyahu (after all, Olmert
endorsed him for prime minister twice, in 1996 and 1999), but it was
important for Olmert to say something about Netanyahu.

"What worries me much more is what they are doing with me and Hamas. Years
ago, Bibi somehow tried to extricate himself from the responsibility they
tried to attribute to him, unjustly, for Rabin's assassination, because of
that rally where there was the picture of Rabin in SS uniform and because of
the creation of an atmosphere of incitement and fright that he encouraged
and nurtured. I thought that after that he would learn a lesson. Today they
are saying that Olmert is Hamas. Olmert is Hamas?"

What annoyed Olmert was a broadcast on the unofficial Likud Internet site,
"Likudnik," in which he was depicted as a Hamasnik with a green hat,
alongside Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. It is doubtful that Netanyahu was
connected to this broadcast, but Olmert does not miss an opportunity: "To
show a picture of me in a Hamas hat? What is this supposed to signal to the
young voter from the hilltop youth, who hears that the leader of the Likud
says that Olmert is a Hamasnik? After all, we know what needs to be done to
Hamas."

(The Likud responds that Olmert knows Likudnik is a private Internet site,
that it is not connected to the Likud or to Netanyahu, and that therefore
his remarks are baseless.)

The idea, raised recently, that the Labor Party and the Likud will establish
a coalition with support from the extreme right in order to block Kadima
upsets Olmert's equilibrium.

"I can understand their desperation, their distress," he says. "These are
distorted dreams, and if they come true they will endanger the health of our
public life. One thing is clear: A perverted coalition like that is built on
the fact that this government will do nothing and it has only one purpose:
to block a government that will do a great deal."

About the coalition he is putting together in his mind, he says nothing,
apart from a general remark to the effect that he does not disqualify "any
Jewish and Zionist party." He does not pay lip service to the Arab parties -
"It isn't practical," he says curtly. "I don't want to play around. They
will not be in the coalition."

He is not acting the way Sharon did on the eve of the 2003 elections, when
he declared that he would leave the defense portfolio in the hands of Shaul
Mofaz. Olmert prefers to keep all the coalition cards in his own hands.
Apart from the education portfolio, which is earmarked for Prof. Uriel
Reichman, as Sharon promised, everything is open to negotiation. He is also
not prepared to say who will be deputy prime minister if he is elected prime
minister. In the past it was reported that Foreign Minister and Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni is slated for the position, but Olmert refuses to
relate to this.

As far as he is concerned, let them sweat. It makes sense. If Kadima wins
more than 40 Knesset seats, Olmert can distribute largesse to everyone. If
it gets fewer than 35, he will have to pay quite a bit for the coalition he
forms. He does not even hint at this, but it is evident that he would prefer
to see the Likud without Netanyahu.

He calls Kadima, the party that Sharon bequeathed him, "the Israel
all-stars."

"We've taken from Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Petah Tikva and
Bnei Sakhnin (not really, as everyone remembers there are no Arabs on the
Kadima list), and in this way we have built the most impressive team that
has ever contended for the government of the state of Israel," he says
enthusiastically. "Kadima carries a message of government stability and
anyone who wants stability, and anyone who doesn't want a system that is
frequently subject to extortion by the small parties, must vote for Kadima."

The mention of Amir Peretz's name does not elicit quantities of venom, as
Netanyahu's does. Perhaps this is a signal about the structure of the next
coalition. In the matter of raising the minimum wage, the Labor Party's main
banner in the campaign advertising broadcasts, Olmert is not prepared to
surrender.

"It is irresponsible to talk in slogans about raising the minimum wage when
the price is the loss of thousands of jobs. All the economists say this,
apart from a small, radical, populist and socialist group that surrounds
Peretz and has to be subjugated to his slogans."

The affair of Omri Sharon's diaries does not impress him. "What happened?"
he says. "So he phoned me two or three times during the past year. So what?"

Sharon was never embarrassed to say that he enjoyed his position. Are you
enjoying it?

"I have never been noted for false modesty," he says, "but to talk about
enjoyment now seems premature to me. For example, I can't stay home with my
wife now anymore and do what we liked to do; take in a movie on the spur of
the moment, order a film and enjoy two hours. I can't go to Betar Jerusalem
[soccer] games. The thought that Betar Jerusalem will beat Hapoel Tel Aviv
at Bloomfield and I will have to see it at home is very uncomfortable for
me."

You have the image of a wealthy individual - cigars, top lawyers, a person
who has sold a home for $3 million.

"Why not eight?" he grouches. "The precise sum is 2.7, or more exactly,
2.69." He squirms uncomfortably in his chair. "I was never a top lawyer. I
simply didn't have the time. I worked for 15 years as a lawyer, parallel to
my work in the Knesset, because then the political system allowed this. My
wife and I bought the apartment for $300,000 that I paid plus a $150,000
mortgage - and that is all my wealth. Twenty years later, at the age of 60,
I sold the apartment. In the meantime I've paid off debts and I've helped my
children. Like every Israeli family."

The family reveals a different Olmert. Gentler. His wife, Aliza, elicits
superlatives from him. "My wife is unique," he says with excitement. "She
engages in a million things, without publicity and without getting an agora
for expenses. There are many institutions, for children at risk, for
battered women, for culture and art, that exist only thanks to her."

What sort of prime minister's wife will she be?

"She has said: I am not going to be Hillary Clinton and I'm not going to be
Sonia Peres."

Have you ever thought of resigning from political life?

"There was a possibility like that, on the eve of the establishment of the
government (when Sharon informed Olmert that he was not going to be finance
minister), but it worked out quickly. In any case," he says, "It is good if
a candidate for prime minister has another option outside the world of
politics. It's good for the internal balance and judgment."

What is your option?

"To be elected prime minister," he says, "or to coach Betar Jerusalem."

On January 5, the day after Sharon was hospitalized, the heads of the
security establishment and the world of intelligence and espionage started
to flock to Olmert's office on the second floor of the Ministry of Industry,
Trade and Labor in the government complex in Jerusalem, to bring him up to
date on the most sensitive affairs of state. Even before then, he says, he
knew quite a bit, because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had ordered the heads
of the system to brief his deputy, Olmert, about everything. More
correctly - almost everything.

There was one detail, he relates in answer to a question, that he did not
know and that he found out only after he became acting prime minister and
was briefed on absolutely all the secrets. Unfortunately, he is not telling
what that secret was. "This was something I had an inkling of, but did not
know, and now I know. But I will only be able to tell it a few decades from
now," he says.

When he says that, one immediately thinks about nuclear matters. But it is
not that, apparently. Is he referring to some deep state secret that is
handed down only from prime minister to prime minister, a secret that has to
do perhaps with the leader of a foreign country who served, or perhaps still
serves, as an Israeli agent? Perhaps it has to do with an Israeli leader,
past or present, who was involved in some matter or other? Olmert knows, and
Olmert isn't telling.