The Israel Project is dedicated to telling Americans all the good news about Israel. Today it handed out a thick booklet called "Israel at 60" to journalists. The booklet contains one section of quotes from Israeli P.M. Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni about the peace process, titled "Recent Statements on Peace."
Here is a typical quote, from an Olmert speech to the Knesset:
“This
is the choice today as well–the existence of two nation-states, Jewish
and Palestinian. For there is no other way…I am not indifferent to the
misfortunes of the Palestinians, despite the fact that it is a result
of the war they initiated and the many opportunities they missed.”
This section of "recent statements" goes on for a couple of pages of upbeat, earnest quotes, showing us how much Olmert cares about Palestinian suffering and a Palestinian state. Fine. The problem is that the list excludes what I (and I imagine many others) find to be Olmert’s most memorable statement about the peace process, in an interview with Haaretz on Nov. 29, 2007:
"If the day comes when the two-state solution
collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting
rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as
that happens, the State of Israel is finished," Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert told Haaretz Wednesday [the day that the Annapolis conference ended].
Pretty dramatic. Many people have quoted Olmert’s comments because they reflect the spiritual crisis that the occupation has produced in Israeli society, all the way up to the highest office. But the Israel Project omits the statement for an American audience. Why? Because they don’t want to feed the South Africa analogy, because they don’t want to let on to Americans that the situation might be dire, even in the eyes of the P.M. This is surely one of the worst effects of the Israel lobby: it manipulates our news from the Middle East to give Americans a false picture of the true state of affairs.
