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Acting Israeli PM: Israel ultimately seeks separation
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-06 09:34
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel would take
the initiative to separate from the Palestinians if they were not "mature"
enough to cooperate in the process.
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| Israeli acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, attends a weekly cabinet
meeting in Jerusalem Sunday March. 5, 2006. Olmert called on religious
leaders Sunday to show restraint and help defuse tensions after this
weekend's church riots in Nazareth, where an Israeli family set off small
explosives late Friday in the Basilica of the Annunciation, leading to a
tense standoff with hundreds of angry Arab residents of Nazareth.
[AP] |
Olmert, speaking by satellite from Jerusalem to the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee conference, said he was not pessimistic about the future and
would work with the Palestinians to "build up a process to solve outstanding
issues" between them.
But, he said, Israel also aspired "to ultimately decide on the permanent
borders for the state of Israel while separating from the Palestinians."
Olmert added that Israel "will take the initiative if we will find that the
Palestinians are not ready, are not prepared, or not mature enough to be able to
make the necessary adjustments within themselves in order to be ready for this
challenge."
Border-setting is the key agenda of the Israeli leader's Kadima Party, which
holds a commanding lead ahead of the March 28 parliamentary vote.
Olmert has previously said that should negotiations fail, he would draw
Israel's borders unilaterally, continuing a process started over the summer when
the Israelis evacuated the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements.
Earlier Sunday, a top political Olmert ally said the prime minister plans to
embark on another unilateral West Bank withdrawal immediately after forming
Israel's next government.
Avi Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet security service, told Israel
Radio that Olmert also plans to set Israel's final borders within four years if
he wins upcoming elections. It was the most explicit statement yet of Olmert's
plans.
Olmert didn't specifically address Dichter's comments.
Olmert also said Sunday that Israel would not cooperate with Hamas unless the
Islamic militant group agreed to recognize and make peace with Israel.
Hamas is setting up a new Palestinian Cabinet after sweeping parliamentary
elections in January. Hamas does not accept the presence of a Jewish state in
the Mideast and has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel.
Olmert also called Iran, which is under international scrutiny for what some
see as its drive to obtain nuclear weapons, "a major threat to all the civilized
world."
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told the AIPAC
conference that a failure by the U.N. Security Council to deal with Iran's drive
for nuclear weapons would "do lasting damage to the credibility of the council."
"The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses," Bolton said, "the
harder and more intractable it will become to solve."
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