Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (2006–2009) published an op-ed in Haaretz on May 22, 2025, condemning Israel’s war in Gaza as a “war of extermination” and accusing the Netanyahu government of committing war crimes, including the deliberate starvation of civilians. Full English translation below. — Ehud Olmert writes:
The Israeli government is currently waging a senseless war — without
purpose, without clear planning, and with no chance of success. Since
its founding, the State of Israel has never initiated such a war. In
this too, the gang of criminals led by Benjamin Netanyahu has set an
unprecedented example in the country’s history.
The clear outcome of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” is, above all, chaos
within army units deployed across the Gaza Strip. This is especially
true in neighborhoods where our soldiers have already fought, been
wounded, and fallen — and where they have killed many Hamas fighters,
who deserved their fate, but also very many uninvolved civilians. The
latter have become statistics in a monstrous toll of false victims among
the Palestinian population.
What has happened in Gaza over recent weeks has nothing to do with a
legitimate war objective. Our fighters are being sent by the country’s
leadership — and by the military command that follows its orders — to
fumble through the neighborhoods of Gaza City, Jabalia, and Khan Younis
in an illegitimate military campaign. This has now become a private
political war, and its immediate result is the transformation of the
Gaza Strip into a humanitarian disaster zone.
Over the past year, serious accusations have been made globally against
the conduct of the IDF and the Israeli government in Gaza, including
allegations of genocide and war crimes. In both domestic and
international media forums, I strongly opposed those accusations — even
while offering harsh criticism of the government. International media
hear all the voices from our public discourse. They can tell who parrots
Netanyahu and his courtiers, and who opposes him — those who, as is now
common in the media, call him the head of a crime family.
I did not hesitate to be interviewed in Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands,
the UK, and other global venues. I often disappointed my hosts by
firmly asserting that Israel was not committing war crimes in Gaza.
Excessive killing? Yes. An unfathomable number of uninvolved victims —
children, women, and the elderly? Certainly. But I claimed, with
self-conviction, that there had never been a direct order from a
political decision-maker to deliberately target civilians in Gaza.
The number of non-combatant civilians killed in Gaza was unreasonable,
unjustified, unacceptable. But as I said in every media outlet worldwide
— these were the outcomes of a brutal war.
This war should have ended in early 2024. It has continued without
justification, without a defined goal, and without a political vision
for Gaza or the broader Middle East. Even if the army — which is
obligated to execute the decisions of the political echelon — often
acted recklessly, carelessly, or with excessive aggression, it did so
without any order, instruction, or directive from senior command to
indiscriminately harm civilians. Therefore, I previously believed no war
crimes were being committed.
[emph. added]
Genocide and war crimes are legal definitions that depend heavily on the
awareness and responsibility of those empowered to define the
objectives, conduct, and limits of warfare. I tried, whenever possible,
to distinguish between the crimes we were accused of — which I denied —
and the carelessness and indifference toward Palestinian victims and the
unbearable human cost. I denied the first charge, admitted the second.
In
recent weeks, I can no longer do so. What we are doing in Gaza is a war
of extermination: indiscriminate, unrestricted, cruel, and criminal
killing of civilians. We are doing this not because of a loss of control
in a certain area, not due to some disproportionate outburst by a
military unit — but as a direct result of a government policy,
deliberate, malicious, reckless, and intentional. Yes, we are committing
war crimes. [emph. added]
First and foremost: the starvation of Gaza. On this issue, senior government officials have expressed their positions openly. Yes, we are denying food, medicine, and essential survival resources to Gaza’s residents as part of a declared policy. Netanyahu, as always, tries to obscure the nature of his instructions to avoid legal and criminal accountability. But some of his courtiers say it openly and proudly: Yes, we will starve Gaza. Because all of Gaza is Hamas, and therefore there is no moral or operational constraint on destroying them — more than two million people.
Israeli media outlets, for various reasons (some of which are understandable), attempt to soften the picture. But the image seen abroad is far broader — and shocking. One cannot remain indifferent. One can no longer dismiss the global response as mere antisemitism — as though “everyone just hates us.” That lie has run its course.
We cannot ignore what is happening in certain IDF units. There are too many incidents of cruel shooting at civilians and unjustified destruction of property and homes.
No — French President Emmanuel Macron is not antisemitic. I know him well and have spoken with him in recent months. In a time of need, the French military stood on the front lines defending Israel and helped intercept Iran’s missile attacks. “We fight alongside you against your enemies at my instruction, and you accuse me of supporting terror,” Macron recently said. He is a friend of Israel. So are the Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and others. Even leaders associated with the political right, who until recently avoided anything that might embarrass Israel, are beginning to distance themselves.
They hear the voices from Gaza. They see the suffering of hundreds of thousands. They hear what is said in the Israeli cabinet and understand what is obvious: Israel’s government, led by Netanyahu, is deliberately enacting a policy of starvation and humanitarian pressure that may result in catastrophe.
Even governments traditionally friendly to Israel — Canada, the UK, and France — are starting to suggest severe measures against the Israeli government, even if those steps could cause Israel serious harm. Macron has suggested suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The leaders of Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy have followed suit.
These voices will grow louder. And in addition to steps taken by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, there is a real danger that punitive actions will be taken against Israel — with devastating political, economic, and even military consequences.
Netanyahu’s gang and its poison machine will immediately cry out in their typical self-victimizing way: “The Gentiles are antisemitic. They hate us. They’ve always hated us. They support terror — and we’re fighting terror.”
The truth is: these governments are not anti-Israel — they are anti-this Israeli government. They believe the government has declared war on the State of Israel and its people, and that the damage it is causing is potentially irreversible.
I agree with them. I believe this Israeli government is the enemy from within. It has declared war on the State of Israel and its citizens. No external enemy in the 77 years of Israel’s existence has done us more harm than what the current Israeli government, led by Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu, and Bezalel Smotrich, is doing now. No external enemy has ever succeeded in undermining Israel’s social cohesion — a key to its resilience — as Netanyahu’s government has. (cont'd---->) --
First and foremost: the starvation of Gaza. On this issue, senior government officials have expressed their positions openly. Yes, we are denying food, medicine, and essential survival resources to Gaza’s residents as part of a declared policy. Netanyahu, as always, tries to obscure the nature of his instructions to avoid legal and criminal accountability. But some of his courtiers say it openly and proudly: Yes, we will starve Gaza. Because all of Gaza is Hamas, and therefore there is no moral or operational constraint on destroying them — more than two million people.
Israeli media outlets, for various reasons (some of which are understandable), attempt to soften the picture. But the image seen abroad is far broader — and shocking. One cannot remain indifferent. One can no longer dismiss the global response as mere antisemitism — as though “everyone just hates us.” That lie has run its course.
We cannot ignore what is happening in certain IDF units. There are too many incidents of cruel shooting at civilians and unjustified destruction of property and homes.
No — French President Emmanuel Macron is not antisemitic. I know him well and have spoken with him in recent months. In a time of need, the French military stood on the front lines defending Israel and helped intercept Iran’s missile attacks. “We fight alongside you against your enemies at my instruction, and you accuse me of supporting terror,” Macron recently said. He is a friend of Israel. So are the Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and others. Even leaders associated with the political right, who until recently avoided anything that might embarrass Israel, are beginning to distance themselves.
They hear the voices from Gaza. They see the suffering of hundreds of thousands. They hear what is said in the Israeli cabinet and understand what is obvious: Israel’s government, led by Netanyahu, is deliberately enacting a policy of starvation and humanitarian pressure that may result in catastrophe.
Even governments traditionally friendly to Israel — Canada, the UK, and France — are starting to suggest severe measures against the Israeli government, even if those steps could cause Israel serious harm. Macron has suggested suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The leaders of Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy have followed suit.
These voices will grow louder. And in addition to steps taken by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, there is a real danger that punitive actions will be taken against Israel — with devastating political, economic, and even military consequences.
Netanyahu’s gang and its poison machine will immediately cry out in their typical self-victimizing way: “The Gentiles are antisemitic. They hate us. They’ve always hated us. They support terror — and we’re fighting terror.”
The truth is: these governments are not anti-Israel — they are anti-this Israeli government. They believe the government has declared war on the State of Israel and its people, and that the damage it is causing is potentially irreversible.
I agree with them. I believe this Israeli government is the enemy from within. It has declared war on the State of Israel and its citizens. No external enemy in the 77 years of Israel’s existence has done us more harm than what the current Israeli government, led by Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu, and Bezalel Smotrich, is doing now. No external enemy has ever succeeded in undermining Israel’s social cohesion — a key to its resilience — as Netanyahu’s government has. (cont'd---->) --
Let
me reiterate what is already becoming a broad consensus among the
Israeli public: this government is unfit to rule. It is unwilling and
incapable of doing what is best for the state and its citizens. It is
obsessed with destroying the foundations of internal unity and
cooperation — even among groups that disagree. It incites brother
against brother, mother against child, soldier against soldier, and
unleashes thugs on hostages and their families with sadistic, reckless
cruelty — all while failing to bring the hostages home.
Amid this chaos, we continue to slaughter Palestinian civilians in the
West Bank. I’ve said it and I won’t take it back: the “Youth of the
Horrors” are committing daily atrocities throughout the West Bank, with
the army and police looking the other way.
The murder of Tze’ela Gez is horrifying. One cannot help but feel grief
for this young woman, killed on her way to give birth. May her son be
saved and grow up surrounded by the love of his family. But when the
head of the Shomron Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, calls for Palestinian
villages to be destroyed — that is a call for genocide.
And when a Palestinian village is torched — and many have been — we’ll
be told it was just “a small violent fringe.” That’s a lie. There are
many. The advance guard is always small, but behind them stand the
Dagan-types, who inspire, aid, and shield them — and prepare the next
wave.
Where is the police? Where is the army? Where are the tens of thousands
of settlers who will say: these are criminals who belong in prison — not
in the olive groves of the West Bank?
And let us not ignore what’s happening in certain elite IDF units —
where some of Israel’s most daring fighters serve. Too many cases of
cruel shootings, of looting, of theft from homes — and soldiers proudly
posting about it. We are committing war crimes.
I do not share the opinion of former Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon, who
has said we are committing ethnic cleansing. But we are approaching a
point where that becomes undeniable — the inevitable result of what our
government, army, and brave soldiers are actually doing.
It’s time to stop — before we are cast out from the family of nations
and summoned to the International Criminal Court for war crimes. And we
will have no good defense.
That’s all.
—END—
My Commentary:
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s May 22, 2025, Haaretz op-ed represents a watershed moment in Israeli political discourse. For over a year, Olmert publicly defended Israel against charges of war crimes and genocide, even as he harshly criticized Netanyahu’s leadership. In this piece, however, he openly admits that “in recent weeks” he can no longer do so, charging that Israel’s actions in Gaza now constitute a “war of extermination” and deliberate war crimes, including the starvation of civilians—allegations he previously rejected. Olmert’s reversal is not only personal but emblematic of a broader reckoning within Israel’s establishment.
This dramatic shift comes in the wake of mounting whistleblower testimony from Israeli soldiers, the looming threat of international legal action at the ICC and ICJ, and a tidal wave of condemnation from Western governments and media outlets, as I discuss in a parallel piece on the topic posted here yesterday. The convergence of these factors has made continued denial untenable for even the most prominent defenders of Israeli policy. Olmert’s words echo those of former IDF general and opposition leader Yair Golan, who days earlier broke political taboos with his own searing condemnation of government policy—further signaling a historic realignment among Israel’s elite.
Olmert’s op-ed is also deeply personal and political. His animus toward Netanyahu is unmistakable, with language describing the current government as a “gang of criminals” and “the enemy from within.” It is no secret that Olmert and Netanyahu have been bitter rivals for decades, and Olmert’s intervention may be partly motivated by the sense that Netanyahu’s political ship is sinking—potentially opening space for new leadership. Recent interviews suggest Olmert is not ruling out a return to politics if the opportunity arises, adding another layer to his sudden and forceful public break.
Olmert’s op-ed is a textbook example of how political and moral narratives shift under pressure. For months, he and others characterized the war as “senseless”—tragic but not criminal, the result of chaos or poor leadership rather than deliberate policy. In his own words, he previously distinguished between “carelessness and indifference” and actual war crimes, insisting that the mounting civilian toll was not the result of government orders but of battlefield excesses and the fog of war. This position allowed him—and many others—to criticize the conduct of the war without confronting its underlying intent.Yet, in a pivotal and self-justifying turn, Olmert
claims that only “in recent weeks” has he recognized the true nature of
the war: “a war of extermination,” carried out as a “direct result of a
government policy, deliberate, malicious, reckless, and intentional.”
This is not a minor rhetorical adjustment but a fundamental reversal—one
that is difficult to reconcile with his earlier claims of senselessness
and lack of purpose. The contradiction is not accidental; it is the
mechanism by which denial gives way to acknowledgment, and complicity is
recast as belated moral clarity.
This rhetorical pivot is not unique to Olmert. It
mirrors a broader pattern among Israeli and Western politicians, media,
and intellectuals, who are now rapidly shifting their public stances in
the face of mounting whistleblower testimony, imminent international
legal judgments, and a dramatic change in global opinion. The timing of
these reversals strongly suggests that the shift is driven as much by
external pressures and reputational concerns as by any sudden moral
awakening.
To reduce these reversals to mere opportunism would be
to miss the gravity of the moment. But it would be equally naïve to take
them at face value as purely the product of conscience. Rather, they
reflect the complex interplay of personal, political, and historical
forces that shape elite opinion in moments of reckoning. As the costs of
silence rise and the verdict of history looms, we are witnessing not
just a reckoning with the facts, but a reckoning with complicity itself.
>>Ehud Olmert, "We are Committing War Crimes," Haaretz (Hebrew edition), May 22, 2025 (Trans. provided by DropSite News on X)
>> Monica Marks, Selected translations of the article with commentary, X post, May 24, 2025.
>>Common Dreams, Israeli Troops Blow Whistle on War Crimes in Gaza 'Kill Zone,' April 7, 2025
>>Haaretz, "Breaking The Silence is a Legitimate Outlet for Israeli Whistleblowers," March, 2016