SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: be aware that figures like Olmert and Ehud Barak, another ex-PM, are there to be trotted out when the optics on Israel are in deep trouble.

https://x.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1928060936713060417

It's obviously useful to have a former Israeli prime minister like Ehud Olmert admit Israel is starving Gaza's people to death – something the BBC still tries to obscure. But also be aware that figures like Olmert and Ehud Barak, another ex-PM, are there to be trotted out when the optics on Israel are in deep trouble. They are there to reassure us that there are "good Israelis", even as polls show overwhelming support among Israeli Jews for the war crimes these former leaders now, very belatedly, denounce. Neither of these two Ehuds is even vaguely electable. What they are doing in speaking out is to shore up the belief that a genocidal Israel is salvageable. That it can be returned to what it formerly was – when that prior thing was a highly militarised, violent, apartheid state. Remember, Olmert and Barak both committed their own appalling crimes against the Palestinian people. Their hands are drenched in blood. They are right that Netanyahu's government is committing war crimes – just as they did. They are not worried by those war crimes. They are worried that the scale of the war crimes and the ferocity of them will make it impossible for Israel to rebut the genocide charge. Ultimately, this is about damage limitation and protecting Israel's long-term apartheid project.

Quote