From: The Jerusalem Post May 23, 2025
Ehud Olmert's Gaza statement is more media spectacle than political dissent: — Editorial

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert crossed the line this week in his interview to the BBC

There are many ways to dissent in a democracy. That is our strength, but there are also lines – of responsibility, of timing, and of loyalty – and crossing those lines carries a cost. This week, former prime minister Ehud Olmert crossed that line.

In an interview with the BBC, Olmert denounced Israel’s conduct in Gaza in sweeping, unrestrained terms:
1. not in the Knesset,
2. not in the Israeli press,
3. and not to the people who live with the consequences.

He spoke instead to an international broadcaster, eager for condemnation and slow to understand the context or the cost.
When Israeli leaders, past or present, choose to denounce their own country in the pages and studios of foreign media, it is no longer internal critique.

It is a political act performed for an audience:
1. hungry for confirmation of its worst assumptions,
2. quick to strip complexity and to amplify blame,
3. and entirely free of responsibility.