“The ultimate goal of this gang is to purge the West Bank of its Palestinian inhabitants and annex the territories to the State of Israel, but that plan will not be achieved without an extensive violent conflict,” the politician warned in an opinion article in the newspaper Haaretz. “Not even colonization in the entire devastated Strip is the final objective of the group of crazy people who took power in Israel,” he stressed.

Olmert pointed in particular to the far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir, of National Security, and Bezalel Smotrich, of Finance, known for their anti-Arab and radical stances.

“Gaza is only the introductory chapter, the platform that this gang wants to build as a base on which the real conflict they aspire to will take place: the battle of the West Bank and the Temple Mount,” he noted, referring to the sacred place in the occupied area of East Jerusalem known to Muslims as the Esplanade of the Mosques.

Their ultimate desire is to cleanse the West Bank of its Palestinian population and annex the lands to Israel, he stressed.

The former head of government warned that “the path to achieve this objective is full of blood.” “The project will only be achieved with a large-scale violent conflict, a catastrophe, a total war”, said Olmert, who estimated that the Israeli extreme right took control of the Executive and turned the man who heads it, Benjamin Netanyahu, into its servant.

Regarding the conflict in the Gaza Strip, he assured that complete victory is not possible there. Even if military action continues for several more months, the price to pay is not worth it, he said.

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