Former Israeli prime minister will join Abbas to condemn ‘Deal of the Century’

In 2008, Abbas rejected an offer from former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that included a Palestinian capital in eastern Jerusalem and almost complete sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

By World Israel News Staff

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will hold a joint press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas next Tuesday in New York City to condemn U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century.”

The joint press conference will reportedly take place on the sidelines while the UN Security Council addresses the peace plan.

“He does not plan to fight with [President Trump], but he does want to talk about the real way to make peace,” an unnamed source close to Olmert said as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner responded to the report by calling it “pathetic” and “disrespectful” to publicly oppose a plan after Olmert failed to achieve peace in 2008.

“It is almost pathetic that they are criticizing other peoples’ efforts to try and reach an agreement,” Kushner told reporters after a closed-door meeting with members of the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday. “It comes from a lot of jealousy that they couldn’t do it themselves.”

“If you really want to make peace, then you need to encourage the efforts of other people to try and make peace instead of trying to make headlines when you are not relevant and intervening in the situation to get attention,” he added.

In 2008, Abbas rejected an offer from Olmert that included a Palestinian capital in eastern Jerusalem, almost complete sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, and placing the Old City of Jerusalem under international control.

Olmert, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, was released from prison in 2017 after serving 16 months of a 27-month sentence for fraud and bribery.

Olmert returned to the public eye in 2018 with the release of his autobiography, In the First Person (“Beguf Rishon”), in which he insisted there was a conspiracy to oust him as prime minister because he had wanted to sign a peace agreement with the Palestinians.