After three weeks of negotiations, Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has put together a coalition government that backs his plan to pull out of parts of the West Bank and draw Israel's final borders by 2010, officials said yesterday.
In the West Bank town of Tulkarem, meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian woman while trying to arrest an Islamic Jihad militant hiding in the woman's apartment building, the army said. The soldiers fired at the house when they saw suspicious movement, killing the 41-year-old woman and wounding her two daughters, the army said. The army apologized for the shooting and said it was investigating.
Disparate group
PHOTO: AFP
In Israel, coalition talks ended late on Sunday when Olmert informed President Moshe Katsav he had formed a government that controls a majority in parliament.
Olmert's Kadima Party won a March election, but did not win enough seats in the 120-member parliament to rule alone. The agreement signed with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party late on Sunday, along with support from the left-center Labor Party and from the Pensioners' Party, gives Olmert a majority of 67 in parliament.
Labor and the Pensioners are expected to support Olmert's West Bank plan without hesitation. However, the hawkish Shas insisted that it not be forced to commit now to the program which would require the dismantling of dozens of Jewish settlements. Olmert is not expected to launch the plan for another year to 18 months.
If Shas were to back the pullout, the party could alienate its hard-line constituency, which opposes handing over parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
"The settlers will not forget that Shas turned its back on them at this difficult time, as Olmert's sword lies on the neck of the entire settlement enterprise," Yitzhak Levy, a lawmaker from the pro-settler National Religious Party, was quoted as saying in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.
But the dovish Meretz Party, which has so far not joined Olmert's government, could give parliamentary support to a West Bank withdrawal if Shas pulls out in coming months.
Changing the Border
In an initial push to draw Israel's borders, Olmert's Cabinet modified the route of the separation barrier on Sunday, putting thousands of Palestinians on the West Bank side of the structure.
Israel began construction of the barrier four years ago, saying it needed to keep suicide bombers out of the country. Olmert says the barrier will serve as the basis for Israel's final border with the West Bank, which Israel won from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel has cut off all ties with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, making unilateral action in the West Bank increasingly likely. Israel has said it will not have contact with the Hamas government unless it recognizes Israel, accepts past peace agreements and renounces violence.
Hamas has so far rejected the demands. However, a senior Hamas official, speaking by phone from an Israeli jail, said the group was seriously debating whether to accept a 2001 Arab peace initiative, which proposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The plan implies recognition of Israel.
The Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the debate is ongoing, said the group is unlikely to make a quick decision because it does not want to be seen as bowing to Western pressure.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese