'We can't wait forever', Olmert tells US Congress

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert told a joint meeting of US Congress that Israel would be a “willing partner in peace” with the Palestinians, but would draw its own borders in the West Bank should it conclude it had no negotiating partner.

“We cannot wait for the Palestinians forever,” Olmert told members of the House of Representatives and Senate gathered in the House chamber in Washington yesterday.

“Our deepest wish is to build a better future for our region, hand in hand with a Palestinian partner, but if not, we will move forward, but not alone,” he said, alluding to promised US support.

Olmert drew a sustained standing ovation when he declared, “We will not yield to terror,” a reference to suicide attacks on Israelis such as those that killed a 16-year-old American high school student observing the Passover holiday in Israel this year. Daniel Wultz’s parents sat in the House chamber, sobbing, as Olmert mentioned their son.

Olmert also drew long applause for tough words condemning whet he said was Iran’s drive to build nuclear weapons and the escalating anti-Semitic rhetoric from its leader.

“If we don’t take Iran’s bellicose rhetoric seriously now, we will be forced to take its nuclear aggression seriously later,” Olmert said.

Olmert said the West Bank withdrawal was vital to Israel’s security and the cause of peace and could not go forward without US support.

In a policy shift on Tuesday, the White House gave unexpected backing to Israel’s plan to unilaterally set its borders with the Palestinians should their new Hamas leaders refuse to disarm and renounce their call for Israel’s destruction.

President George Bush praised what he called Olmert’s “bold ideas” for acting on its own in the event that talks founder on the internationally backed “road map” peace plan.

From the US Capitol podium yesterday, Olmert called on the moderate Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to seek a negotiated solution – the preferred route for Olmert and Bush.

“With a genuine Palestinian partner for peace, I believe we can reach an agreement on all the issues that divide us,” the Israeli leader said.

If the Palestinians “ignore our outstretched hand for peace,” Olmert said, “Israel will seek other alternatives to promote our future and the prospects of hope in the Middle East.”

Hamas’ victory in January Palestinian parliamentary elections hurt peace prospects because of the group’s violently anti-Israel ideology. The Bush administration considers Hamas to be a terrorist organisation, and has acknowledged the obstacles Israel is liable to face in trying to make peace with Abbas, who was elected separately last year.

After the two men met on Tuesday, Bush said Olmert’s ideas “could lead to a two-state solution if a pathway to progress on the road map is not opened in the period ahead”.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, an Abbas ally, welcomed Bush’s call for negotiations. But he rejected the notion of an imposed solution.

“President Bush said the first option is negotiation,” Erekat said. “There is no other option.”

Olmert, making his first visit to the US since winning election in March, told Congress that Israel had learned it must give up some of its dreams in the interest of a secure future for a Jewish democratic state.

“We hope and pray that our Palestinian neighbours will also awaken,” he said.

In Jerusalem, a senior Cabinet member close to Olmert said if Hamas did not recognise Israel and renounce violence within six months Israel would move ahead with plans to unilaterally draw its final borders by 2010.

“If these things don’t happen, we won’t wait for years, but rather we will wait until the end of this year,” Haim Ramon told Israel Radio. “This will be a year of diplomacy.”

“First negotiations, and after the negotiations, if it doesn’t succeed and it becomes clear that there is no (Palestinian) partner, we will move ahead with the consolidation plan,” Ramon said.

Olmert has given Abbas a tall order for proving Palestinian commitment to negotiating a final deal.

Abbas would have to disarm Palestinian militant groups; the Palestinian government would have to recognise Israel; and previous agreements would have to be fully put in place.

Before leaving, Olmert met with about 40 American Jewish leaders and told them he was very much impressed with Bush’s “comprehensive grasp of the entire situation in the Middle East,” said June Walker, national president of Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organisation.

On Iran, she said, Olmert said he was “confident that America would do what was necessary to deal with Iran.”

On Hamas, Olmert said he was not confident Hamas would change, but he wanted to give Abbas every opportunity to develop a pathway to coexistence of two separate nations.