Israel 'must draw permanent borders' - Olmert

Israel’s next parliament must determine the country’s permanent borders, said acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, setting a four-year time frame for drawing the line between Israel and the West Bank.

Olmert was speaking yesterday at a special session marking the anniversary of the founding of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. He did not say how the borders would be drawn, leaving open the option of unilateral Israeli action.

Since taking over from ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Olmert has said Israel must take action to separate from the Palestinians, preferably through peace negotiations. However, he has indicated that Israel might pull out of parts of the West Bank where most Palestinians live, while maintaining control over main Jewish settlement blocs, even if talks fail.

Sharon said often that after his pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank last summer, he would not order additional unilateral withdrawals. Olmert has quietly moved away from that principle in the five weeks since he assumed power after Sharon’s massive stroke, staking out a centrist position for his Kadima Party, founded by Sharon in November. Kadima maintains a wide lead in the polls ahead of elections on March 28 for a new parliament, which would have a four-year term, though it could be dissolved earlier.

In his speech, Olmert said the new parliament will “be faced with a series of historic missions.” He said preserving Israel as a Jewish state was the overall goal.

“The first mission toward achieving this goal will be the determination of the final borders of the state of Israel,” he said.

Peace negotiations have been frozen since 2000, when the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli violence erupted. In 2003, US President George Bush formally presented the internationally backed “road map” peace plan that envisioned a Palestinian state after three stages of negotiations, but the talks stalled at the outset.

Chances for renewed talks dimmed when Hamas swept the Palestinian parliamentary election last month. Hamas rejects the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East and has sent dozens of suicide bombers, who have killed hundreds of Israelis.

Corruption and mismanagement by the ruling Fatah was the main issue in the Palestinian campaign, not violence toward Israel, but Olmert has insisted Israel will not deal with a Hamas government.

In a direct slap at Hamas, the outgoing Palestinian parliament, dominated by Fatah, yesterday gave Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the head of Fatah, extended powers to counter Hamas legislation.

Abbas would have the authority to appoint a new, nine-judge constitutional court, which would serve as the final arbiter in disputes between him and a Hamas parliament and Cabinet. The court could also veto legislation deemed to violate the Palestinians’ Basic Law, which acts as a quasi-constitution.

Legal expert Issam Abdeen said the legislation would essentially give Abbas power over what laws the new parliament passed “since he is the one who appoints the judges of the constitutional court.”

Hamas officials said they would immediately try to overturn the laws after the new parliament is sworn in Saturday.

The last-minute legislation “is a kind of bloodless coup,” charged Abdel Aziz Duaik, an incoming Hamas legislator. The new law “puts complete authority in the hands of the president,” he said.

Hamas, which won 74 seats in the 132-member parliament, would need a two-thirds majority – or 88 seats – to buck Abbas and change Monday’s legislation. Fatah controls 45 seats and could block a coalition of Hamas and smaller parties from revoking the law if it maintains party unity.

Lawmakers also appointed Fatah loyalists to four key jobs, including the head of the government watchdog group in charge of weeding out corruption – the issue that cost Fatah the election.

Palestinian political analyst Talal Okal said parliament’s actions worsened the already tough challenge facing Hamas as it tries to flex its muscle in a Palestinian bureaucracy filled with Fatah loyalists.

“Hamas will be in a difficult position. It will be running a government from its head, but the whole body will be Fatah,” he said.