In a recent Haaretz op-ed, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right ministers of knowingly steering Israel into an all-out war.

Olmert tells host Haaretz podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer that for Netanyahu and his far-right ministers, Gaza is only the beginning. They are aiming for “Armageddon, that will make it possible to expel many of the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

Adds Olmert: “A great majority of Palestinians killed in the West Bank (since Oct. 7) were killed not necessarily for good reasons, and not by qualified Israeli security forces, but by volunteers — such as the hilltop youth.”

Olmert is a longtime fierce Netanyahu critic.

He contends that the current government wants to extend the conflict in Gaza and thus had no interest in a cease-fire that would release Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

“Nothing would have happened on October 7,” Olmert says, if a different government with different priorities was in charge. “The failure starts with the overconfidence spread by the prime minister,” that his “sophisticated manipulations” deterred Hamas.

Read more at this Haaretz link.