MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Two of the hostages who were released this morning - Evyatar David and Guy Dalal - they were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and held in Gaza for more than two years. Here's Guy's father Ilan Dalal speaking to reporters yesterday.
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ILAN DALAL: Our nightmare is - finally is coming to an end now.
MARTIN: Ilan said that Evyatar and Guy were best friends.
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DALAL: They grew up together. They went to this music festival together. They were kidnapped together. They suffered together in the tunnels. And now they're going back to their families.
A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
Tal Shoham was in captivity with them until he was released in January. Speaking at the same press conference, he said recovery will be a long process, and it will be different for all the former hostages.
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TAL SHOHAM: We are not responsible to all the awful and cruelty things that happening to us. Our only mission is to become better every day and to clean ourselves from the cruelty and hell that we went through.
MARTIN: For more on this important day, we are joined by Ehud Olmert. He served as prime minister of Israel between 2006 and 2009. Prime Minister, thank you so much for joining us once again.
EHUD OLMERT: I'm delighted.
MARTIN: So as we've been hearing, there is joy over the release of the hostages. Israel is emerging from this war that's dragged on for more than two years. How would you summarize this moment?
OLMERT: Precisely as you did. This is a very unique moment in the life of a nation. We are full of joy and relief and a sense of fulfillment. We have finally brought back our people from the tunnels in Gaza after two years of being there. All of them are back, alive, and there are still some that ought to be brought back for burial - unfortunately, the dead who were killed and murdered under the captivity of Hamas. But of course, the fact we could bring all of them back with the extraordinary assistance and support of President Trump is a very unique moment in our lives. So at this moment, we are not making any calculations or discussions or drawing any kind of conclusions about what led to what, you know, why did we have to take two years. Right now there is one thing to do, and this is to be happy.
MARTIN: So what is your assessment of this 20-point peace plan that is on the table? Do you think this framework could lead to lasting peace?
OLMERT: Look, this is not a peace agreement. It has never been called a peace agreement. It was called an agreement to comprehensive end of the war in Gaza, full stop, which is what it is - comprehensive end of war in Gaza, return the hostages, releasing the prisoners, Palestinian prisoners, building a security force that hopefully will take over the military control in Gaza and building up a body of bureaucrats and technocrats that will replace the nonexistent government, particularly after the demise of Hamas.
But this is just the first step. It needs to be moved forward. And therefore, there ought to be a more broader concept of how we have to build the relations with the Palestinians. There has to be end game solution. And in my mind, there can be only one, a two-state solution - Israel and, of course, alongside Israel, an independent Palestinian state. That will have to be established as a result of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. I hope that President Trump, carried away by the emotions and the extraordinary support provided him - to him, will decide to take this one step further towards the beginning of negotiations between us and the Palestinians for a two-state solution.
MARTIN: Obviously, that's a longer conversation, but as the - Mr. Netanyahu, current prime minister, has stated that he objects to this, does not agree with this, will not agree to this. Do you think he can be moved?
OLMERT: You know, I'm familiar with what Netanyahu says and what he has been saying for years. I imagine that when President Trump told him, when they were sitting in the Oval Office in White House just a week ago, that he has to call the prime minister of Qatar and apologize to him for the attack in Qatar and that he has to read a text that was dictated by Qatar and that the assistant to the prime minister of Qatar will be sitting next to him and check that he doesn't miss one word of what was dictated to him, that Netanyahu wasn't very happy about it. But he did it because Trump had the power to force him to do it.
So the question is not what Netanyahu wants. We all know what he wants, and we also know what he doesn't want. He doesn't want to move forward, broadly speaking, towards a solution that requires the recognition of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal of Israel from 90 - more than 90% of the territories that are now occupied by the state of Israel. That includes Gaza and the West Bank. I've proposed a full plan for such a peace in 2008, when I was prime minister. That included the creation of a Palestinian state on the basis of the 67 borders, with the Arab side of Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state, with the old city of Jerusalem - which is now under the exclusive political sovereignty of Israel - to lose this exclusive political sovereignty and be administered by a trust of five nations, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Israel and America, so that the most sensitive place in the universe perhaps...
MARTIN: OK.
OLMERT: ...Will not be subject to any exclusive political and military control that might have...
MARTIN: OK.
OLMERT: ...Disrupt any possible...
MARTIN: OK.
OLMERT: ...Agreement in the future. So all this was proposed. Unfortunately, at that time, the Palestinians didn't have the courage and the leadership to accept it. But this is something that now has to be pursued.
MARTIN: That is - we have to leave it there for now. That's Ehud Olmert, former prime minister of Israel.
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