Israel will determine its border with the West Bank in the absence of negotiations with the Palestinians, and then it will build a wall and move all settlers to the Israeli side, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published yesterday.
Olmert told the Yediot Ahronot daily that if the Palestinians "prefer to be dragged into the axis of evil of Iran," then Israel will change the path of its separation barrier in the West Bank according to national consensus and "Israelis will not live on the other side of the barrier."
Olmert also threatened to assassinate incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas if he is involved in terrorism.
In interviews with other Israeli newspapers, published on Thursday, Olmert said Israel would determine its borders by 2010, setting a deadline for the first time for what would appear to be a large-scale unilateral withdrawal from much of the West Bank.
Olmert, facing elections on March 28, said the current barrier, still under construction after more than three years, is a "security fence." The new one would be Israel's border with the West Bank, he said.
He told the paper that he would enter into dialogue with settler leaders to try to get them to agree to the new line, moving settlers from outlying areas into settlement blocs he plans to incorporate into Israel.
In the earlier interviews, Olmert said he would keep Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumim, near Jerusalem, and Ariel, deep in the West Bank, as well as maintaining control over the Jordan River Valley, the line between Jordan and the West Bank.
pullout
Even with these areas under Israeli control, the plan would mean a pullout from most of the West Bank and removal of dozens of settlements.
Olmert, whose Kadima Party is the front-runner in March 28 elections, has been increasingly forthcoming about his agenda in recent days to stop a gradual slide in the polls.
Polls published on Thursday showed Kadima with a wide lead over its two main rivals, the moderate Labor and hawkish Likud. But since the Kadima founder, former prime minister Ariel Sharon, was felled by a massive stroke on Jan. 4, Kadima's numbers have been slowly dropping.
The latest polls showed Kadima with about 38 seats of the 120 in the parliament, while Labor was winning about 19 and Likud 17.
Trying to shore up the center -- a new concept in traditionally polarized Israeli politics -- Olmert has been outlining a policy that would appeal to dovish Israelis who believe in evacuating much of the West Bank, as well as hawks who favor retaining the Jewish settlements there.
Olmert told Yediot Ahronot he would consult world powers to try to get support for the new border, which would annex parts of the West Bank to Israel.
"First of all I will talk to [US] President [George W.] Bush," he said.
Up to now, the US has opposed unilateral moves.
Asked if he would give an order to assassinate Haniyeh, he replied, "Anyone who is involved in planning terror attacks will be a legitimate target for liquidation," noting that Israel assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
"If he [Haniyeh] deals with politics, even politics that are unacceptable to me," Olmert added, "and is not involved in terrorism, he will not be a target."
With Hamas about to present a new Palestinian government, resumption of stalled peace negotiations appears unlikely.
Mahmoud Abbas
Haniyeh met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza late on Thursday. Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Hamas has not completed formation of its government, and Abbas offered an extra two weeks, as Palestinian law provides.
A meeting between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah also failed to achieve agreement on a joint government, participants said.
Hamas, which has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, does not accept the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Israel considers Hamas a terror group and refuses to talk to its leaders.
In the absence of peace talks, Olmert's unilateral approach is meant as a bold initiative to solve Israel's main security problems, in the image of Israel's unilateral pullout from Gaza last summer under Sharon, but he has come under fire from Israeli hawks and doves, as well as Palestinians.
Dovish parties are sniping at Olmert for undermining efforts to restart peace negotiations, while Likud and other hawks charge that unilateral Israeli pullbacks amount to a reward for Palestinian violence.
Abbas rejected any further unilateral Israeli steps, demanding that future moves should be the result of negotiations.
Abbas, leader of the Fatah Party trounced by Hamas in the January parliamentary vote, was elected separately and has almost three years left in his term.
But Olmert told the Jerusalem Post daily he had no intention of meeting Abbas after Israel's elections because he sees him as part and parcel of a Palestinian Authority dominated by Hamas.
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