Former prime minister Ehud Olmert is defending fellow ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu against the dishonor visited upon him by former US President Donald Trump.
A book by journalist Barak Ravid quotes Trump as raging at Netanyahu over the fact that he congratulated Joe Biden on winning the presidency: “He was very early. Like earlier than most. I haven’t spoken to him since. Fuck him.”
Speaking in English via video link at the opening session of the 13th Annual Leadership Dialogue on Israel-UK-Australia Relations, Olmert calls Trump “a person, which for him, everything is personal.”
Then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and former prime minister Ehud Olmert, left, attend the funeral of Likud MK Zeev Boim in Binyamina, March 21, 2011. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod, Pool)
“This is crazy, I think he’s a pathetic person,” Olmert adds of the ex-US president, while noting that Netanyahu waited until “it became embarrassing for the state of Israel” to congratulate Biden.
Despite backing Netanyahu in this instance, Olmert still doesn’t display much love for his political foe, who he says he doesn’t, like, trust or “believe in his integrity or desire to do anything other than what suits his personal interest.”
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