Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Saturday on Newsmax expressed skepticism over ongoing negotiations between White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, saying he doubts the talks will result in a breakthrough.
In an interview with Newsmax's "Saturday Report," he also called on Israel to end its war with Hamas in exchange for all remaining hostages.
"I wish that I could be optimistic about the talks between Mr. Witkoff and the prime minister of Qatar," Olmert said. "I think that presently Israel seems to be engaged more in an effort to hopefully take over all of Gaza and, as was correctly said, trying to free all the hostages in a military operation."
He added that he doubts that what Israel has failed to do for the past 22 months in its "very extensive and comprehensive military operation in Gaza" will succeed now.
"I'm very much afraid that the chief of staff of the Israeli army is correct in his assessment that it may bring about the loss of the hostages rather than the saving of them," said Olmert.
Olmert pointed out that the hostages remain central to the Israel-Hamas conflict, but he said that the war has come to the point "where a further military operation will not make a difference."
This means, he said, that Israel should commit to ending the war in exchange for the release of all hostages and then withdraw from Gaza.
"We need to end the war, to end the war, which means to make a commitment that we hold everything," he said.
Olmert also proposed the creation of an interim security force made up of Palestinians and Arab soldiers "from Egypt, from Jordan, from the Emirates, from the Saudis maybe, and others" that will take control of Gaza and prevent Hamas from rising again.
Egypt, he said, would be a potential leader in such a mission.
"The Egyptians are better qualified in terms of their presence, proximity, and military power," said Olmert, adding that Gaza "is a Palestinian territory, not Israeli. It has never been. And it shouldn't be."
He also strongly rejected the idea of displacing Gaza's population, calling deportation "ethnic cleansing" that "will not work," and he warned that Israel is entering "a very dangerous" phase.
"The fact is that over the last year, the assessment of the knowledgeable Israelis is that we have lost more than 40 of the hostages that were murdered while they were in captivity," he said. "So if Israel is at this time trying to expand the military operation in order to take over entirely Gaza, the likelihood is that we will lose the hostages — all of them, all of the remaining 20 hostages that are still alive. We may lose them."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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