Israel 'will build a new wall'

Israel will determine its border with the West Bank in the absence of negotiations with the Palestinians – and then it will build a wall and move all settlers to the Israeli side, acting prime minister Ehud Olmert said today.

Mr Olmert said that if the Palestinians “prefer to be dragged into the axis of evil of Iran”, then Israel will change the path of its separation barrier in the West Bank according to national consensus and “Israelis will not live on the other side of the barrier”.

Mr Olmert also threatened to assassinate incoming Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas if he is involved in terrorism.

He said Israel would determine its borders by 2010, setting a deadline for the first time for what would appear to be a large-scale unilateral withdrawal from much of the West Bank.

Mr Olmert, facing elections on March 28, said the current barrier, still under construction after more than three years, is a “security fence”. The new one would be Israel’s border with the West Bank, he said.

He said he would enter into dialogue with settler leaders to try to get them to agree to the new line, moving settlers from outlying areas into settlement blocs he plans to incorporate into Israel.

He added that he would keep Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumim, near Jerusalem, and Ariel, deep in the West Bank, as well as maintaining control over the Jordan River Valley, the line between Jordan and the West Bank.

Even with these areas under Israeli control, the plan would mean a pull-out from most of the West Bank and removal of dozens of settlements.

Mr Olmert, whose Kadima Party is the front-runner in the elections, has been increasingly forthcoming about his agenda in recent days to stop a gradual slide in the polls.

Polls show Kadima with a wide lead over its two main rivals, the moderate Labour and hawkish Likud. But since the Kadima founder, prime minister Ariel Sharon, was felled by a massive stroke in January, Kadima’s numbers have been slowly dropping.

Mr Olmert has been outlining a policy that would appeal to dovish Israelis who believe in evacuating much of the West Bank, as well as hawks who favour retaining the Jewish settlements there.

He said he would consult world powers to try to get support for the new border, which would annexe parts of the West Bank to Israel.

“First of all I will talk to President Bush.”

Up to now, the US has opposed unilateral moves.

Asked if he would give an order to assassinate Haniyeh, he replied: “Anyone who is involved in planning terror attacks will be a legitimate target for liquidation.”

He noted that Israel assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

“If he (Haniyeh) deals with politics, even politics that are unacceptable to me, and is not involved in terrorism, he will not be a target.”

With Hamas about to present a new Palestinian government, resumption of stalled peace negotiations appears unlikely.

Mr Haniyeh met Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza late yesterday.

Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Hamas has not completed formation of its government, and Abbas offered an extra two weeks, as Palestinian law provides.

A meeting between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah party also failed to achieve agreement on a joint government.

Hamas, which has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, does not accept the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Israel considers Hamas a terror group and refuses to talk to its leaders.

In the absence of peace talks, Mr Olmert’s unilateral approach is meant as a bold initiative to solve Israel’s main security problems, in the image of Israel’s unilateral pull-out from Gaza last summer under Sharon, but he has come under fire from Israeli hawks and doves, as well as Palestinians.