Israel set to draw borders by 2010

ACTING prime minister Ehud Olmert expects to draw Israel’s permanent borders by 2010 and, as part of that effort, will build a controversial settlement outside Jerusalem.

Mr Olmert, whose Kadima Party is clear front-runner in the March 28 election, told The Jerusalem Post daily that, within four years, he intended to “get to Israel’s permanent borders, whereby we will completely separate from the majority of the Palestinian population and preserve a large and stable Jewish majority in Israel.”

Mr Olmert adviser Avi Dichter disclosed that time frame earlier this week, but this was the first time Mr Olmert had publicly stated it. Olmert said Israel would act unilaterally to set its borders, if Hamas militants - poised to take control of the Palestinian Authority - didn’t renounce their violent campaign against Israel and accept the guidelines of an internationally backed peace plan within a “reasonable time”. Should Hamas resist, he said, “we will need to begin to act”.