Olmert vows to consult over West Bank pull-out

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today pledged to consult Israel’s citizens and the world about his plan to pull out of much of the West Bank, remove settlements and set his country’s borders within four years.

Olmert’s Kadima party is far ahead in the polls, and his two main opponents devoted the end of their campaigns to attacking Olmert and his plan, after declaring the vote a referendum on the future of Israel’s presence in the West Bank.

No official campaigning is allowed tomorrow, the day before the election. Israeli soldiers in units along the Lebanon border began voting today, the military said.

Olmert’s plan, which he calls “consolidation,” has breathed life into an election campaign that has been sleepy despite earthquakes in Israeli politics - the exit of Ariel Sharon, felled by a stroke and still in a coma, and Kadima taking a wide lead, the first time a centrist party has tasted success in a nation traditionally split along hawkish and dovish lines over policy toward the Palestinians.

Olmert proposes completing the barrier between Israel and the West Bank that has been under construction for more than four years, incorporating main settlement blocs on the ”Israeli” side and moving settlers outside the barrier into the blocs.

Olmert said he would try to build a consensus in the fractious Israeli public to back his plan. Settlers, hawkish supporters and most Orthodox Jews hotly opposed Sharon’s unilateral pullout from Gaza last summer, forcing Sharon to reshuffle his Cabinet, leave Likud and create Kadima.

So far there is no sign of moderation among opponents of unilateral Israeli pullbacks. Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel Radio that Olmert’s plan would only bring Hamas closer to Israel. “These borders that our political rivals are proposing will not be defensible,” Netanyahu said. “No one will agree to them.”

Up to now the US and Europe have opposed Israeli settlements in the West Bank and have called for borders to be fixed through negotiations, not unilateral action, but Olmert remained hopeful.

“I have a basis to believe that there is great openness in the United States and in other places to listen to these positions and also to seriously discuss them,” Olmert told Israel Radio today in the latest of a series of pre-election appearances in local news media.

Olmert, who took over Kadima from Sharon, said he would give Hamas some time to show whether it would accept basic demands put by Israel and the Western world: recognising Israel, endorsing interim peace accords and renouncing violence after a history of dispatching suicide bombers into Israel.

Incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh blamed Israeli occupation for the violence, but added, “We don’t seek a whirlpool of blood in this region.” He said Hamas wants to end the conflict with Israel.

Olmert said Hamas would have some time to change its ways. If not, Israel would be able to persuade the international community “to discuss other options if it reaches the same conclusion that we reach – that Hamas is not a negotiating partner”.

The latest polls showed Kadima winning about 35 seats of the 120 in the parliament, Likud 15 and the moderate Labour, 20.

The new Hamas Cabinet is to take office on Wednesday after a vote of confidence from the Palestinian parliament, where Hamas has an absolute majority.