Excerpts;
“The religious Zionist public is in severe distress in the wake of the harsh public debate that is giving rise to fundamental questions regarding the character of the state according to its worldview. This public has had to cope with the difficult experience of having to accept the concession over territory and settlements. Its distress must be understood and a track for deep and sincere dialogue with it must be found.
But it must also be recalled that there are hundreds of thousands of Israelis who, for 35 years, have served in the territories and participated in enforcing Israeli authority there even though they believe with all their hearts that the state is furthering a mistaken policy that has caused severe damage to our social fabric. Israel society is composed of many strata: Religious Zionism, the population that lives on the periphery and has felt neglected for years, another segment of the population that strongly opposes holding onto the territories and sees them as a source of evil and would like to refuse to serve there, minority populations, etc.
We must create a new atmosphere of dialogue and perhaps aspire to a new definition of Zionism as well. Zionism cannot be defined solely on the basis of support or opposition to the Disengagement. Whoever believes in the right of the Jewish People to have a sovereign Jewish state in any part of the Land of Israel is a Zionist. Agreement on a new, broad definition of Zionism is the essential basis for preserving the internal unity of Israeli society.”
Commentary;
Olmert:
Paragraph 1; “The religious Zionist public… Its distress must be understood and a track for deep and sincere dialogue with it must be found.”
Yeah, Right! Sweet spin words, the reality is that the only dialogue that Olmert knows for Religious Jews is the end of a police or Yassam billy-club or horses stomping heads or harrassment of and discrimination against Religious soldiers for wearing their tzitzit out.
Paragraph 2; Incoherent babble.
Paragraph 3; “Whoever believes in the right of the Jewish People to have a sovereign Jewish state in any part of the Land of Israel is a Zionist.”
It seems obvious that what Olmert means is; “Whoever believes in the right of the Jewish People to have a sovereign Jewish state in any [remaining] part of the Land of Israel is a Zionist.”
This author does not subscribe to Olmert’s apparent definition of Zionism. It seems obvious that Olmert is really defining a form of “Post-Zionism.” MB