Trump must tell Netanyahu 'enough is enough': Ehud Olmert

Paris: US President Donald Trump should tell Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu “enough is enough”, a former Israeli prime minister told AFP, denouncing the continuation of the war in Gaza as a “crime” and insisting a two-state solution is the only way to end the conflict.

Ehud Olmert, prime minister between 2006-2009, said in an interview in Paris that the United States has more influence on the Israeli government “than all the other powers put together” and that Trump can “make a difference”.

He said Netanyahu “failed completely” as a leader by not preventing the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas that sparked the war.

He said while the international community accepted Israel’s right to self-defence after October 7, this changed when Netanyahu spurned chances to end the war in March and instead ramped up operations.

Netanyahu “has his personal interests which are prioritised over what may be the national interests,” Olmert charged.

Analysts say Netanyahu fears that if he halts the war, hardline members of his coalition will walk out, collapsing the government and forcing elections he could lose.

Trump should summon Netanyahu to the White House Oval Office and facing cameras, tell the Israeli leader: “‘Bibi: enough is enough'”, Olmert said, using the premier’s nickname.

“This is it. I hope he (Trump) will do it. There is nothing that cannot happen with Trump. I don’t know if this will happen. We have to hope and we have to encourage him,” said Olmert.

Despite occasional expressions of concern about the situation in Gaza, the US remains Israel’s key ally, using its veto at the UN Security Council and approving billions of dollars in arms sales.

Olmert spent over a year in prison from 2016-2017 after being convicted in corruption scandals that ended his political career and efforts to forge peace.

A longtime political rival of Netanyahu even though they both emerged from the same Likud right-wing party, he also faces an uphill struggle to convince Israeli society where support for a Palestinian state, let alone land swaps, is at a low ebb after October 7.