Olmert wins agreement on new Israeli coalition deal

AFTER three weeks of negotiations, Israel’s premier yesterday put together a coalition government that backs his plan to pull out of parts of the West Bank and draw the country’s final borders by 2010.

Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced key cabinet appointments, naming Tzipi Livni, a pragmatic jurist and rising star in Israeli politics, as vice premier and foreign minister. Livni, aged 47, had served as acting foreign minister in recent months.

The appointment makes Ms Livni, a protegé of former prime minister Ariel Sharon who spent four years working at the Mossad intelligence agency, the number two player in male-dominated Israeli politics.

Outgoing Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, who only belatedly threw his support behind Mr Olmert, got a relatively minor portfolio.

Mr 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 on Sunday, along with support from centre-left Labour Party and from the Pensioners’ Party, gives Mr Olmert a majority.

Labour and the Pensioners are expected to support Mr Olmert’s West Bank plan without hesitation but the hawkish Shas insisted that it would not be forced to commit now to the programme, which would require the dismantling of dozens of Jewish settlements. Mr Olmert is not expected to launch the plan for another 12-18 months.

If Shas were to back the pullout, the party could alienate its hardline constituency, which opposes handing over parts of the West Bank to Palestinians.

But the dovish Meretz Party, which so far has not joined Mr Olmert’s government, could give parliamentary support to a West Bank withdrawal if Shas pulls out in the coming months.

In an initial push to draw Israel’s borders, Mr Olmert’s cabinet modified the route of the separation barrier yesterday, putting thousands of Palestinians on the West Bank side of the structure.

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, killing Itaf Zalat, aged 41, and wounding her two daughters, the army said. The army apologised and said it was investigating.