Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is confident in US President-elect Joe Biden's friendship for Israel and feels that his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the "right one," Olmert said last week on a webinar hosted by Long Island University's Global Service Institute conducted by Institute chairwoman and Journalist Rita Cosby.
"I have no fears whatsoever about his [Biden's] presidency as far as Israel is concerned," Olmert said.
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Olmert said he believed Biden's attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the "right" one: "It is an attitude based on friendship and commitment to the security of the state of Israel … [Biden] is entirely different from Trump, and to be honest and transparent, I prefer Biden's attitude, because it fits in with what I tried to do."
Olmert was referring to an ultimately failed peace deal he negotiated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008. Since his years in office, Olmert has kept in touch with Abbas, even holding a high-profile meeting with him in New York earlier this year.
Video credit: Long Island University's Global Service Institute
The former prime minister said that while there was "no question" that Donald Trump ha been a "friendly president" to Israel, it was more important that a US president be good for America.
"As much as we are obsessed with our own needs and our own difficulties and our own challenges, we think that it is very important that the president that will be elected to America be good for America to start with. If he will be good for America, and that's what will be determined by the majority of people voting in America, then he will be good for the world, and then almost inevitably he will be good for Israel," Olmert said.
Olmert said he believed both Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had failed to effectively handle the coronavirus pandemic in their countries. In general, he was very critical of Netanyahu, saying "I hope he will be going soon. I think that he is not the right person at the right time."
Turning to the ever-present issue of Iran and its race toward nuclearization, Olmert said he hoped that Biden would have the courage to "go forward in the direction" laid out by former US President Barack Obama, and "make a better agreement with Iran that will deter them from even trying to go further in their nuclear program."
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