Israel sets deadline for Palestinian peace deal

Israel will give the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, and will unilaterally set its final borders with them by 2008 if they don’t, according to a close associate of prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Justice Minister Haim Ramon was the first Israeli official to set a deadline for the Palestinians’ new militant Hamas rulers to disarm and recognise the Jewish state.

The Palestinians’ moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas, of the rival Fatah party, has tried to persuade Israel to bypass Hamas and talk peace with him, but Olmert has made it clear that he is not prepared to negotiate with Abbas if Hamas doesn’t change its violent ways.

“Through to the end of this year, 2006, there will be honest attempts to talk to the other side,” Ramon told Israel’s Army Radio.

“If it becomes clear by the end of the year that we really have no partner, and the international community is also convinced of this, then we will take our fate into our own hands and not leave our fate in the hands of our enemies,” he added.