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Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaks during a conference in TA, Sunday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners March 13, 2006 |
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Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took a key step toward securing crucial U.S. support for his unilateral plan to pull out of much of Judea and Samaria, an aide said - consulting Washington before he made it public at home.
Spokesman Asaf Shariv said Sunday an aide presented the plan to a U.S. official before Olmert disclosed it in interviews last week. "They neither approved nor objected to it," Shariv said. U.S. Embassy spokesman Stewart Tuttle was unable to confirm that the conversation took place.
Olmert's detailed plan to move tens of thousands of settlers from their present locations in Judea and Samaria, into the larger settlement blocs, maintain control of the strategic Jordan River Valley and Jerusalem holy sites and, in effect, leave the rest of the territory for the Palestinians, has energized Israel's up to now sleepy election campaign.
Reacting, Olmert's main hard-line rival in the March 28 vote, Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, declared the election a referendum on the future of Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria, while dovish Labor Party leaders said Olmert is copying their platform while ruling out talks with the Palestinians.
In an analysis headlined "The End of Ambiguity," Yossi Verter, the political reporter for the Haaretz daily wrote, "Everything is on the table ... now it's up to the voter," adding, "There's no doubt that Olmert has taken a courageous move. Time will tell whether it was wise politically."
Though still far ahead in the polls, Olmert's Kadima Party has been slipping a bit, and analysts said he presented his detailed plan in an effort to shore up support.
At least tacit U.S. approval would be critical, as the U.S. is Israel's most important ally.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon extracted a statement from U.S. President George Bush that final borders between Israel and the Palestinians would have to take into account demographic changes since Israel captured Judea and Samaria in 1967, taken to mean that Israel would annex some settlement blocs.
However, U.S. officials have reacted coolly to Israeli claims on the Samarian Ariel settlement bloc and the Jordan Valley. Also, up to now, the U.S. has insisted that borders must be set through negotiations and has opposed unilateral Israeli moves.
The victory by Hamas in January Palestinian elections changed the equation. Israel, the U.S. and European Union consider Hamas a terror organization. Israel has ruled out talks with Hamas, and resumption of peace talks is even more unlikely now than during the past five years, marked by deadly Palestinian-Israeli violence.
In an interview in Arabic to satellite TV stations, Kadima candidate and ex-Shin Bet security chief Avi Dichter equated Hamas with the Nazi Party "as it relates to Jews and Christians as well."
Hamas is putting together a new Palestinian government, and on Sunday a Hamas official said one of the planks of its legislative plan would be continued "resistance" against Israel. The Israelis interpret "resistance" as terror attacks. Hamas has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, but none in the past year during a cease-fire.
Also, the official said Hamas would reconsider signed Palestinian-Israeli accords, refusing to accept them outright.
After Sharon completed his pullout from Gaza, tearing down 21 settlements there and also four small ones in the West Bank, he said there would be no more unilateral Israeli pullbacks. When that did not satisfy rebels in his Likud, Sharon broke away and founded the centrist Kadima Party in November.
Sharon was felled by a stroke on Jan. 4 and remains in a coma. Olmert, his closest political ally, took over the party.
In another development late Sunday, the military said soldiers found a 20-kilogram (45-pound) bomb in a bag carried by a Palestinian at a roadblock near the Samarian city of Nablus.
AP contributed to this report.
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