PARIS, France — US President Donald Trump should tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “enough is enough,” a former premier told AFP, denouncing the continuation of the war against Hamas in Gaza as a “crime” and insisting a two-state solution is the only way to end the conflict.

Ehud Olmert, prime minister in 2006-2009, said in an interview in Paris that the United States has more influence on the Israeli government “than all the other powers put together” and that Trump can “make a difference.”

He said Netanyahu “failed completely” as a leader by not preventing the October 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas-led terrorists that sparked the ongoing war.

Olmert said that while the international community accepted Israel’s right to self-defense after October 7, this changed when Netanyahu spurned chances to end the war in March this year and instead ramped up operations.

Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during the first phase of a ceasefire between January and March. But Netanyahu refused to negotiate a second phase, which would require committing to the end of the war, and military operations resumed two weeks after the first phase expired.

Netanyahu “has his personal interests which are prioritized over what may be the national interests,” Olmert charged.

Analysts say Netanyahu fears that if he halts the war, hardline members of his coalition will walk out, potentially collapsing the government and forcing elections he could lose.

“If there is a war which is not going to save hostages, which cannot really eradicate more of what they did already against Hamas and if, as a result of this, soldiers are getting killed, hostages maybe get killed and innocent Palestinians are killed, then to my mind this is a crime,” said Olmert.

“And this is something that should be condemned and not accepted,” he said.

Trump should summon Netanyahu to the White House Oval Office and, facing cameras, tell the Israeli leader: “‘Bibi, enough is enough,'” Olmert said, using the premier’s nickname.

“This is it. I hope [Trump] will do it. There is nothing that cannot happen with Trump. I don’t know if this will happen. We have to hope and we have to encourage him,” said Olmert.

Despite occasional expressions of concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the US remains Israel’s key ally, using its veto at the UN Security Council and approving billions of dollars in arms sales.

Hamas-led terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages on October 7; 55 hostages are still held in Gaza, 20 of them believed to be alive.

Following the onslaught, Israel launched an operation to eliminate the terror group and return the hostages.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 54,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 429.

Along with former Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser Al-Kidwa, Olmert is promoting a plan to end decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to create a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

Both sides would swap 4.4 percent of each other’s land to the other, according to the plan, with Israel receiving some West Bank territory where settlements are located, and a future Palestinian state receiving some territory that is currently part of Israel.

Ahead of a meeting this month in New York co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia on steps towards recognizing a Palestinian state, Olmert said that such a plan is “practical, is doable, is relevant, is valid and is real.”

Olmert spent over a year in prison in 2016-2017 after being convicted in corruption scandals that ended his political career.

A longtime political rival of Netanyahu, even though they both emerged from the same Likud right-wing party, he faces an uphill struggle to convince Israeli society, where support for a Palestinian state, let alone land swaps, is at a low ebb after October 7.

“It requires a leadership on both sides,” said Olmert. “We are trying to raise international awareness and the awareness of our own societies that this is not something lost but offers a future of hope.”

Al-Kidwa, who is due to promote the plan alongside Olmert at a conference organized by the Jean-Jaures Foundation think tank in Paris on Tuesday, told AFP the blueprint was the “only game in town and the only doable solution.”

But he said societies in Israel and the Palestinian territories still had to be convinced, partly due to the continuation of the war.

“The moment the war comes to an end, we will see a different kind of thinking. We have to go forward with acceptance of the coexistence of the two sides.”

But he added there could be no hope of “serious progress with the current Israeli government and current Palestinian leadership” under the aging PA President Mahmoud Abbas, in office now for two decades.

“You have to get rid of both. And that is going to happen,” he said, labeling the Palestinian leadership “corrupt and inept.”