"Netanyahu and his TikTok government do not want the Gaza ceasefire. They want the war to continue there, and Hamas is playing into their hands," said former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this morning (Monday). In an interview ahead of his participation in a conference on the matter he added: "It was clear from the outset that as long as a multinational military force is not established to enforce the sidelining of Hamas and impose a ceasefire on us, nothing substantial will progress."

Today a conference will be held at the Science Museum in Tel Aviv organized by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Mitvim - The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. The event will deal with what is defined as the "Trump peace plan," but Olmert disputes the terminology: "I respect the organizations convening the meeting, but they are calling it by the name Trump gave his initiative, 'peace initiative,' while the agreement signed regarding Gaza is only a document for a ceasefire. That is what was said in it. After that there is some outline of 20 points, which is very similar to the outline I published with Dr. Nasser al-Kidwa, who was at the time foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority and later its ambassador to the UN. We published it already in July 2024, long before the initiative that eventually led to the ceasefire, but it is built on the same principles.

"The principles of the Trump proposal are acceptable to me. They are correct and logical. But one must take into account that the implementation depends on cooperation from the actors on the ground. It was clear from the outset that as long as a military force is not established to enforce the ceasefire in practice, there will be no change."

What needs to be done differently? What force should enforce this? "The Israeli government is interested in a situation that allows it to continue fighting. That is what the ministers want. They do not really want to solve this problem. Otherwise we would be partners in the effort to establish a military force composed of Palestinians and soldiers from moderate Arab states willing to be involved. Trump spoke about establishing this multinational force and even mentioned soldiers from Indonesia or other places. It is not certain that Indonesia is needed. It is enough to have security forces from Egypt, Jordan and Palestinians."

Do you trust Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian forces? "Certainly. I trust them because it has been proven that no security military actor knows how to handle Gazans better and more effectively than the Egyptians. They want this, they said they want this. It is only that we did not respond to them."

The peace with Egypt is problematic, and as is known there is abysmal hatred toward us there. "Public opinion in Egypt is not sympathetic to us. By the way, throughout the world. But Egypt is a strategic partner of the first order. In all recent years they have withstood enormous internal pressures from hostile public opinion, from the Muslim Brotherhood. They continued to maintain peace relations with us and military and security cooperation. We have no security means or actor that can be more effective in the fight against Islamic terror, for the simple reason that it also endangers Egyptian interests. Therefore they are willing to cooperate.

"Unfortunately, as usual, with arrogance, bluster, stubbornness and aggression that represent central components in this government, we do not really want to solve the problem. The way to solve the problem is to bring into Gaza a military force that will receive the authorities within the framework of Trump's 20-point plan, and at the same time establish a technocratic government that will manage the rehabilitation process of the Gaza Strip, and restore the ability to exist and quality of life to hundreds of thousands of residents who today must search for tents to find a solution to their housing problem."

Yesterday marked 20 years since the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War that Olmert led as prime minister. In an interview with Army Radio, Cabinet member Miri Regev said that the way that war ended, with Resolution 1701, constituted the purchase of quiet under whose cover Hezbollah grew to dimensions Israel discovered in Swords of Iron.

To that Olmert replies: "These are nonsense. I cannot say that she is ignorant or foolish. She is a spokeswoman. I was prime minister until April 1, 2009, and until then no weapons entered Lebanon. There was a blockade of its ports by the German navy, which was part of the multinational force we established. Iran tried to transfer weapons to Lebanon through ground convoys from Turkey and Syria, and we handled this through daring operations by Mossad fighters and our intelligence. Usually these convoys would miraculously explode when they reached Syria. There were several times when we activated means and direct bombings against Hezbollah elements in Lebanon. Throughout the period when I was prime minister, Resolution 1701 was fully maintained. By the way, in the past year the government wanted to renew Resolution 1701. They saw it as a model. Justifiably."

So you are still at peace with the way the Second Lebanon War ended? "As mentioned, during the period when I was prime minister, this resolution was fully implemented. Netanyahu has been prime minister since 2009, and what has happened since then is negligence, bluster, arrogance and lack of attention to what was happening in the north and south. This is a concept."

In an alternative reality where you continue to serve as prime minister also after 2009, would you have decided to eliminate Nasrallah or go to war against Hezbollah until its disarmament? "Questions of what if and whether are good for urban legends, not for serious discussion. When it was necessary to eliminate, I eliminated. When it was necessary to eliminate a nuclear program, I eliminated. Not as if, not with blustering declarations, not at press conferences. I eliminated, everyone knows. When it was necessary to eliminate Hezbollah's chief of staff, Imad Mughniyeh, the man who built the entire military force of the organization, he was eliminated. When it was necessary to eliminate the head of Syria's shadow army, Muhammad Suleiman, who was responsible for building the nuclear reactor in Syria, he was eliminated. Not with statements, not in Switzerland and not on TikTok. That is how a responsible government behaved. Today we are in an embarrassing theater."