Israel sounds out Bush on West Bank settlement

With formal peacemaking a dim prospect at this volatile time, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intends to sound out US President George Bush today about Olmert’s ambitious plan to impose a West Bank settlement on the Palestinians.

While Olmert might not get a conclusive answer from Bush, the Israeli leader is looking for clues into whether the president will insist that any plan to carve up the West Bank with the aim of a peaceful solution must be approved by Palestinian leaders and should not be imposed by Israel.

Two years ago, Bush gave then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approval to eventually absorb the biggest Jewish settlements near Jerusalem in the event of a peace accord. But Bush’s recognition of “facts on the ground” – the settlements are solidly Jewish and virtually cities in size – promptly was tempered with US insistence that any territorial accord would require the approval of the Palestinian side.

Olmert’s bid for presidential approval of a unilateral approach is enhanced by the fact that both the Bush administration and Israel have ruled out negotiations with the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority.

On a fast-paced visit, Olmert also had talks planned today with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, tomorrow with Vice President Dick Cheney and House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert. He will also speak to a joint meeting of Congress.

Yesterday, a diplomatic official in Washington said the Bush administration is sending two of its top Middle East envoys, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch and Elliott Abrams of the National Security Council, to the region soon to gather information about Olmert’s plans.

Hamas is classified as a terror group by the State Department and the European Union. It refuses to accept Israel’s existence or renounce attacks against the Jewish state.

Olmert intends to impose his own terms during the next two years, retaining part of the West Bank but assuring the Palestinians a state on land of their own.

The pattern was set on a far smaller scale by Sharon, who decided to withdraw unilaterally all 9,000 Jewish inhabitants and all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and return the area to the Palestinians.

Reluctant at first, the Bush administration went along.

Israeli ambassador Daniel Ayalon said: “We must all examine different options to break the stalemate, and all these issues will be discussed between Prime Minister Olmert and President Bush as a very good and trusted friend.”

Ayalon said Israel appreciated US efforts to have Israel and the Palestinians implement a road map to peacemaking. However, the ambassador said Israel faces a complex situation, with the election of Hamas, what is calls intransigence on the Palestinian side to stopping terror and Hamas' refusal to recognise Israel and past agreements with the Palestinians.

“It is important to continue the relationship Bush and Sharon had of mutual respect, trust and a framework of strategic partnership,” the ambassador said.

Sharon and Bush met a dozen times. They shared a distrust of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and agreed on the road map as a pathway to peace and a Palestinian state.

At the State Department yesterday, spokesman Tom Casey castigated Hamas as harming the interests of the Palestinian people. “They are risking further isolation,” Casey said as Hamas militiamen and Palestinian police attacked each other with assault rifles and grenades in a chaotic firefight that turned downtown Gaza City into a battlefield.

Bush has banned direct US aid to the Palestinian Authority, but with poverty rising among the Palestinian people US assistance, mostly for health programmes, is on its way via UN and private groups.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, Bush’s national security assistant, made preparations with Olmert for the White House meeting over dinner Monday night.