Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Sept. 21 in Paris with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who was on his way to the UN General Assembly session in New York. The statement issued on Olmert’s behalf after the meeting portrayed Abbas in a positive light — unlike the tarred image of the Palestinian leader favored by the Israeli right, especially by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, as a peace rejectionist who supports terrorism and incites against the State of Israel. 

Olmert praised Abbas, calling him “a great political leader and the most relevant person for the future developments in the relations between Israel and Palestinians.” Olmert also said Abbas had never officially rejected the peace initiative he had proposed to him in September 2008, a claim that the right found particularly offensive given its telling of events.

The narrative emerging from various disclosures over the past decade about the Olmert-Abbas peace talks has the Israeli leader offering the Palestinians 95% of the West Bank and the division of Jerusalem into an Israeli and a Palestinian capital, with Abbas “disappearing” at the moment of truth. The political right has repeatedly argued that Abbas’ rejection of such a generous offer was ultimate proof that he did not want peace and aspired to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Now Olmert is discrediting the right’s alibi for refusing to forge a peace deal with the Palestinians, generating accusations of treason, no less.

The head of the Almagor Terror Victims Association, Meir Indor, called on Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to prosecute Olmert for treason and on President Reuven Rivlin to revoke the decision that commuted Olmert’s 27-month sentence for bribery, effectively approving an early release.