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Ehud Olmert watches an air force flyover with soldiers and officials during Independence Day celebrations at the President's house in Jerusalem, Wednesday. (AP)
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Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh, Wednesday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 4, 2006 |
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Israel's new government was to take office after a vote of confidence, but the Palestinian premier rejected its centerpiece - incoming Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to set Israel's borders unilaterally if peace negotiations fail.
Olmert put together a coalition representing 67 of the 120 members of the Israeli parliament, and his government is to be sworn in Thursday evening after debate and a vote of confidence.
The focus of Olmert's political program is the West Bank border plan. It includes completing a security barrier along Judea and Samaria, dipping in to the territory to encircle main settlement blocs. Jewish settlers on the other side would be relocated, and Israel would withdraw behind the barrier.
Olmert pledges to complete the process in four years, with or without peace talks. Now that Hamas has formed a government on the Palestinian side, negotiations are unlikely. Israel considers Hamas a terror group, and Hamas does not accept a Jewish state as part of an Islamic Middle East.
At a news conference in Gaza on Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh rejected Olmert's plan.
"We are in favor of any Israeli withdrawal," Haniyeh said. "If they are going to leave our land, we are not going to run after them and ask them to come back. This does not mean we are going to accept a de facto policy."
Haniyeh also charged that the U.S. is blocking money to pay 165,000 public sector workers, as new bitterness emerged between the militant Islamic movement and President Mahmoud Abbas, uneasily sharing power since Hamas set up its Cabinet.
The al-Jazeera Web site quoted Mohammed Nazzal, a member of the Syria-based Hamas leadership, as saying a "two-headed regime" of Abbas and Hamas cannot continue, indicating Hamas might run a candidate against him.
In Gaza, Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa accused Nazzal and other Hamas leaders of trying to increase tensions.
Fatah dominated Palestinian politics for four decades, running the Palestinian Authority from its formation in 1994 until Hamas won a January election, pledging to clean up Fatah corruption and end internal chaos, but the Western aid cutoff has hamstrung the new government, branding Hamas a terror organization.
Reflecting frustration over empty coffers, Haniyeh told a news conference that the Hamas-led government has raised money, but so far has not found a way to get it into the Palestinian areas.
"We have given alternative suggestions and plans, including what has been reported about sending the lists of the employees to the Arab League to have a direct transfer to their accounts," Haniyeh said, but "we even faced American pressure to prevent the direct transfer."
Haniyeh appealed to Arab leaders to face up to the Americans "to stop the siege imposed on the Palestinian people and to stop the political blackmail against the government." He also called on Palestinian bankers to "show the necessary patriotism." Banks have been hesitant to handle funds for the Palestinian Authority for fear of U.S. sanctions.
The government is the largest employer in the Palestinian areas, and the tardy salaries have caused widespread hardship. Salaries for March were not paid, and April payments are also overdue.
In the past, the West has donated much of the $1 billion in annual foreign aid that makes up much of the Palestinian budget. Now the West has said it will fund only humanitarian projects without going through the Palestinian government.
Also, Israel has halted transfer of about $55 million a month in taxes it collects for the Palestinian government.
In the al-Jazeera interview, Nazzal complained that Abbas "is contributing to the siege by trying to withdraw the government's security and financial prerogatives."
Abu Khoussa said Hamas speaks in two voices. "Inside (the Palestinian areas) they are talking about national unity, and there are many people outside who are trying to create instability and tensions." He said Abbas' assumption of control over security was legal. "It looks like Mr. Nazzal has never read the basic law," Abu Khoussa said.
Hamas official says group will consider 2002 Arab peace plan only if Israel accepts it
Hamas is ready to consider a 2002 Arab League peace plan - which calls for recognition of Israel and a return to pre-1967 war borders - but only if the Jewish state accepts the proposal first, a senior Hamas official said Tuesday.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, said his group would not obstruct attempts to revive the initiative endorsed by Arab leaders at a 2002 Beirut summit, though he said such initiatives were doomed to fail.
"When Israel agrees to the Arab initiative, Hamas will make a decision," Abu Marzouk told The Associated Press by telephone from Damascus.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government has so far rejected pressure from fellow Arab governments to accept the plan, which they have called the only option for ending conflict with Israel.
A second senior Hamas official, however, said the organization was seriously debating the plan.
The official, who spoke from an Israeli jail and on condition of anonymity because the debate was ongoing, said the group was unlikely to make a quick decision to prevent the appearance of having bowed to external pressure.
Israel has rejected the plan because it calls for a total Israeli withdrawal from land captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The plan also proposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Meanwhile, the head of Hamas' political bureau called on Arab and Muslim states to take "a courageous step" and transfer donations to the Hamas-led government after the U.S. and some European countries cut off aid money.
In a speech at an Islamic symposium in Damascus, Khaled Mashaal said "the money is available but it is not allowed to transfer it to the (Palestinian) Authority." He did not elaborate.
The U.S. has tried to pressure Arab banks to withhold funds from the Hamas regime, which it considers a state sponsor of terrorism.
Abu Marzouk's comments came after the leaders of Egypt and Jordan said Saturday that they hoped to lure Israel back to negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, rather than his Hamas-led government.
Hamas officials have issued mixed signals about such talks.
On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said he would not "oppose any negotiating move that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas might take with any party, including Israel."
But Abu Marzouk said he considered talks "worthless."
"Negotiations at the current time are futile and would inflict severe injustice on the Palestinian cause because the Palestinian negotiator...has no power to match the Zionist enemy's power," he said.
Also Tuesday, a delegation of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group was in Cairo for talks with Egypt's chief of intelligence, Omar Suleiman, who was expected to press the militant group to end its attacks on Israelis to revive the peace process.
AP contributed to this report.
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