HERZLIYA, Jan 25: Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had to give up parts of the occupied West Bank and quickly set a border with the Palestinians in his first policy speech since taking Ariel Sharon’s powers. “In order to ensure the existence of a Jewish national home, we will not be able to continue ruling over the territories in which the majority of the Palestinian population lives,” he said on Tuesday.
Mr Olmert’s comments were in line with what Mr Sharon had said before he was incapacitated by a stroke on Jan 4 as he campaigned for re-election on the strength of last year’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Hinting that Israel would act alone to set a border if talks failed, Mr Olmert said he hoped Wednesday’s Palestinian election would deliver a government ready to follow a US-backed roadmap.
“The most dramatic and important step we face is shaping the permanent borders of the state of Israel,” Mr Olmert said.
“We would prefer an agreement. If our expected partners in the negotiations in the framework of the roadmap do not uphold their commitments, we will preserve the Israeli interest at all costs,” Mr Olmert said.
Palestinians reacted warily to the suggestion of Israel acting alone while Jewish ultranationalists were furious at the prospect of giving up land they see as a biblical birthright.
As the acting leader of the centrist Kadima party that Mr Sharon founded weeks before he collapsed, Mr Olmert is expected to win a March 28 general election, defeating leftist Labour and Mr Sharon’s former party, the right-wing Likud.
ROADMAP PLEDGE: In his speech, Mr Olmert pledged to follow the roadmap, which calls for Israel to stop settlement expansion and remove unauthorized settler outposts. So far, the Israelis have failed to do either.
He also urged the Palestinians to disarm militants under the plan, a process which they have not begun.
Mr Olmert said Palestinian attacks would prompt faster construction of the West Bank barrier that Israel says is meant to stop suicide bombers and Palestinians call a land grab that they fear will become a permanent boundary.
“Mr Olmert must abandon the ways of unilateralism. The Palestinian Authority is fully committed to peacemaking,” top negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Settlement supporters were furious at the suggestion of a further withdrawal from parts of the West Bank.
“Olmert is the beginning of the end of the state of Israel,” said right-wing lawmaker Aryeh Eldad.
Israel’s leftist Labour said Mr Olmert appeared to be copying its policies. Likud accused him of concealing plans for a unilateral withdrawal like the one from Gaza, which rightists branded a capitulation to the Palestinians.
Hopes that Israel’s Gaza withdrawal would spur progress on the roadmap have been knocked by violence. Both Israel and the Palestinians are also caught up in electioneering.
Palestinians voted on Wednesday in their first parliamentary ballot for 10 years, which could for the first time usher into government the powerful Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction.
Israeli officials have cautioned that a victory for Hamas could herald an end to Middle East peacemaking.
Mr Olmert reiterated the demand that Palestinians disarm Hamas and other militant groups, a move President Mahmoud Abbas has suggested might be easier to carry out after the election.
Most opinion polls show Hamas trailing Fatah, but the margin has narrowed to a few percentage points. —Reuters