Israel ready to redraw borders on its own terms: PM
TEL AVIV, May 4: Incoming Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Thursday that Israel was prepared to rewrite the map of the Middle East on its own terms as he sought backing for his new governing coalition from parliament.
In a speech before lawmakers, Mr Olmert said Israel was endangering itself by maintaining isolated settlements in the occupied West Bank and that it was vital to maintain its Jewish majority by separating from the Palestinians.
Mr Olmert, whose Kadima party dominates the incoming government, said he would prefer to reach a negotiated settlement to the Middle East conflict with the Palestinian Authority, but indicated that no progress in the peace process was possible while the radical Hamas ran its government.
He said he was prepared to act unilaterally and put into action his master plan known as ‘convergence’, which will involve the uprooting of some 70,000 settlers from the occupied West Bank.
In turn, Mr Olmert plans to cement Israel’s control over the major housing blocs in the West Bank where the vast majority of the quarter of a million Jewish settlers live.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas responded by calling for ‘immediate negotiations’ with Israel and warned Mr Olmert against unilateral action.
“The continuation of the scattered Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) is endangering us,” Mr Olmert told lawmakers before his government was due to be formally sworn in by the 120-member parliament.
“The bottom line is that we have to maintain a strong Jewish majority in our country and we must guarantee a defensible area where this majority can live.”
“Even if the Jewish eye sheds a tear, even if the heart is torn, we must retain the essence. We must maintain a solid and stable Jewish majority in our country.”
The convergence plan is set to echo last year’s monumental withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the first time Israel had fully left occupied Palestinian territory.
Mr Olmert acknowledged that the numbers set to be uprooted from the West Bank are set to dwarf the 7,000 settlers who were pulled out of Gaza.
“Disengagement from Gaza was only a first step. The bulk of the work is still ahead of us,” he said.
Mr Olmert was elevated to the premiership after his political mentor Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke at the start of the year.
He then led Kadima to a narrow victory in a March 28 election, winning 29 of the 120 Knesset seats up for grabs.
Mr Olmert has spent the intervening period drawing up a broad-based coalition, which also includes the centre-left Labour party.
All the members of his coalition refuse to do business with Hamas as it does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and advocates armed struggle, despite its embrace of the democratic process in January’s Palestinian election.
Mr Olmert, who has previously classified the Hamas-led government as an enemy entity, said the Palestinian ‘terrorist infrastructure’ had to be dismantled.
“A Palestinian government led by a terrorist organisation will not be a partner and we will not hold any contact with it,” he added.
The spokesman for the moderate Abbas, who has responsibility for peace negotiations, reacted to the speech by reiterating the presidency’s call ‘to resume immediate negotiations’.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said any unilateral measures would run into opposition.
“We call on Mr Olmert to abstain from any unilateral solution because such measures feed violence and anarchy in the region,” Mr Erakat said.
Right-wing Israeli opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu also attacked Mr Olmert’s plan, saying unilateral measures would only strengthen hardliners such as Hamas.
“There has never been a government that has given up so much ahead of time and relieves the other side of its obligations,” Mr Netanyahu told the Knesset.
Before swearing in the Olmert cabinet, MPs unanimously elected former minister Dalia Itzik as the first woman speaker of parliament.
NEW GOVT: Israeli lawmakers on Thursday approved Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s new coalition, swearing in a government determined to separate from the Palestinians and rewrite the map of the Middle East.
The vote of confidence in Mr Olmert’s four-party coalition and 25-member cabinet followed four weeks of intense coalition talks led by his centrist Kadima party, which won a March 28 election and now dominates the government.
It was approved by 65 votes to 49 of those deputies present following a keynote address by Mr Olmert, a speech by the leader of the right-wing opposition Binyamin Netanyahu and a fiery debate from lawmakers.
“I hereby declare that the Knesset approved the prime minister’s government statement,” declared newly installed parliament speaker Dalia Itzik before Mr Olmert signed the oath of office. —AFP
