Ehud Olmert predicted a comprehensive Israeli-Arab peace deal within five years.The Arab League’s re-endorsement this week of its 2002 peace initiative represented a “revolutionary change,” Olmert told Ha’aretz in one of several pre-Passover interviews he gave newspapers, because it underscored decreasing Arab intractability.
He told Yediot Achronot that there is “a real chance that within five years Israel will be able to reach a comprehensive peace deal with its enemies.” The 2002 plan implies a “right of return” to Israel for Palestinians. Olmert told The Jerusalem Post this was “out of the question,” and that he would not accept even a symbolic return, as other prime ministers have contemplated.
Still, the details of the 2002 plan are less important than the fact that it represents a “state of mind,” Olmert told Ma’ariv.
