In the Month of Elul...

Our intrepid Prime Minister has chosen the period leading up to Yom HaDin, a time for serious introspection, soul-searching and repentance, days to be in awe of the One before Whom we stand---to make the folowing asinine declarations:

Olmert: ‘Forget Greater Israel’
by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel

(IsraelNN.com) "The notion of a Greater Israel no longer exists, and anyone who still believes in it is deluding themselves," said Ehud Olmert, in what is likely to be his last cabinet meeting as Prime Minister.

"Forty years after the Six Day War ended, we keep finding excuses not to act. This isn't doing Israel any good,” said Olmert to the members of his cabinet.

Olmert warned that unless Israel gives up more land, it will face pressure from overseas to grant all PA Arabs citizenship in a single state of two nationalities. “The international community in starting to view Israel as a future binational state. We can prove that we have been more creative than the other side through the years, and that they have been more obstinate, but as usual, we will win the debate by not losing sight of what's really important.”

...“We have to ask ourselves is losing a hill here or there, is worth forfeiting the chance to achieve something. This is why I say that this is the time to discuss the evacuation-compensation . We have to keep pushing it, and eventually bring it before the government,” he noted, referring to a proposal put forth by Chaim Ramon, former Minister of Justice and current Vice-Premier.

...“A day will come, probably sooner than some are willing to admit, that all of us will be willing to embrace the same solutions that some of us are rejecting right now.” [unwitting prophecy???]


Olmert: Israel Wasted 40 Years on Judea, Samaria

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that Israel spent 40 years investing its energy on Judea and Samaria – in vain.

"We invested the emotional resources and our thoughts in 'how to build Judea and Samaria' but history made it clear to us that the state of Israel has other realistic and practical alternatives," Olmert said in a speech at the Ashalim students' village. "The future of the state of Israel will not be in our mixing with the Palestinians but in the empty parts of the land that are thirsting for our entrepreneurial and inventive drive," he added.

"For forty years we invested the energy of our souls in order to build up a place from which, in retrospect, we see that the land shall not be built. I say this carefully, with respect and circumspection," he said. "I have great appreciation for the people who built their homes in those places and in the past I, too, supported them."

It's Olmert's mouth moving, but it's the Sitra Achra speaking. They're gonna have to pick Olmert up and remove him , chair and all, because he won't let go of it willingly. Like Paro (and countless others) before him, he has deluded himself and is convinced that he can not fail or fall. That usually means that the failure and the fall are imminent.

Olmert to Ignore Elections, Offers More 'Goodwill Gestures'
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has offered Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas more "goodwill gestures" despite the Kadima elections that will determine his replacement as party leader and head of the government, PA sources said Wednesday. He apparently has backtracked on his stated promise to quit the day after the elections.

One of the gestures he promised Abbas at a meeting on the eve of the leadership elections is the release of more Arab terrorists.
Prime Minister Olmert had promised to resign after a new leader is chosen, but he can remain in power for several weeks while his replacement tries to form a new government, which is not a certainty. If the new party leader is unable to form a government, President Shimon Peres will ask another party leader to carry out the task or order new elections.

Prime Minister Olmert's reported promise of more compromises and concessions to the PA may be challenged by opposition parties, who can ask Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to rule that he has no right to make policy decisions while he is a "lame duck" prime minister.

Mazuz recently denied a petition that he declare the government to be in "transition" and to limit Olmert's flexibility. If one of the four candidates wins Wednesday's election on the first round with at least 40 percent plurality, the Olmert administration will legally be one that is temporary.

Sources quoted by Chinese news agency Xinhua also stated that Abbas asked Prime Minister Olmert to offer more facilities to Arabs at the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, to take down more checkpoints and roadblocks and to free Marwan Barghouti. The Tanzim terrorist head is serving five life terms in prison for planning deadly terrorist attacks that resulted in the murders of numerous people. Prime Minister Olmert replied he would free him by the end of the month, Xinhua reported.

Prime Minister Olmert already has granted permission to the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount to repair and restore verses from the Koran that were carved into several Muslim buildings on the Temple Mount, according to WorldNetDaily reporter Aaron Klein.

Special tools and machinery for repairing the verses have been stored in Ashdod for three years, Klein reported.
And all in the month of ELUL!!