Israel 'plans West bank pull-outs'

A top political ally of acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today confirmed plans for a further unilateral withdrawal, or disengagement, from West Bank settlements.

“It will be only a civilian disengagement, not a military disengagement,” Avi Dichter, a former security chief, told Israel Radio.

The process of carrying out a second pull-out will begin immediately after a new government is formed following March 28 elections, Dichter said.

He added said the entire process would take about four years, but did not specify which settlements might be evacuated.

Polls show Olmert’s Kadima Party to be the clear front-runner in the upcoming Israeli vote, with at least double the strength of its nearest rivals.

Earlier today, the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, citing Dichter, reported that the withdrawal would include at least 17 settlements. Over the summer, Israeli settlers and soldiers evacuated the Gaza Strip, and settlers were uprooted from four small West Bank communities.

With Hamas militants about to take control of the Palestinian Authority, Israel has no negotiating partner, Dichter said. Given that, “Israel will have to define, by itself, its final borders, and that will involve the consolidation of smaller settlements into settlement blocs,” he said .