LONDON: A former prime minister of Israel said on Thursday that current premier Benjamin Netanyahu should be removed from power for being a “real danger” to the country, despite the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Ehud Olmert told Sky News that Netanyahu and his administration were a “real danger” to Israel’s stability and he should be “thrown out” of office during an interview with the channel’s international affairs editor, Dominic Waghorn.
Speaking ahead of a ceasefire coming into effect in Gaza alongside a hostage release brokered by Qatar, scheduled to start Friday morning, Olmert said a break in hostilities could inspire widespread protests within Israel against Netanyahu.
“(The Israelis) can’t stand him, if there will be a break of a couple of days, they will change direction and move out into his home or his office and, you know, there will be demonstrations the like of which we’ve never seen in our country,” he said.
“The amount of rage, which has been built up inside the people, is just unbelievable,” he added.
Olmert said Netanyahu would face serious pressure and should leave office immediately.
“As far as I’m concerned, based on my judgement of what is good for Israel or not, he should go today. He should go this minute. He should be thrown out any minute,” he said.
“He is a real danger to the stability, to the solidarity, of the Israeli society and to the ability of the Israelis to return again to a normal pace of life, which is something we need after this terrible disaster we have experienced,” he added.
Olmert said he did not shy away from expressing his opinion and added that “elder statesmen” of Israeli politics were “aware of what I think.”
He continued: “I said it time and again, at this moment and at this second, he has to leave. And I really think that Netanyahu, in the words of Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, (is) the worst leader in the history of the Jewish people.”