Wanted: Courage

Ehud Olmert gives a quite stunning interview in which he states that Israel must withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem for the sake of peace and a two-state solution, and that notions of attacking Iran's nuclear facilities are ridiculous.

He said that traditional Israeli defense strategists had learned nothing from past experiences and that they seemed stuck in the considerations of the 1948 war of independence.

“With them, it is all about tanks and land and controlling territories and controlled territories and this hilltop and that hilltop,” he said. “All these things are worthless.”

He added, “Who thinks seriously that if we sit on another hilltop, on another hundred meters, that this is what will make the difference for the State of Israel’s basic security?”

Of course, he said all this the day after he resigned as the Kadima Party leader and Prime Minister of the country, when he no longer had, you know, control over these policies. And this is the central contradiction of politics - citizens claim to value honesty from their leaders, but so many roadblocks are constructed to prevent it. What we need in the world is more courage.

And one thing I think everyone can agree on is that we need less world leaders who are willing to believe debunked right-wing email forwards. Who knew that Asif Ali Zardari gets the same crap emails that my uncle sends me?