Separating from the Palestinians and redrawing Israel's borders without negotiations, Ehud Olmert is following the trailblazing path of stricken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as he seeks election.
In the unlikely event that Sharon were to awake from the coma into which he sank after suffering a stroke on January 4, he would undoubtedly give his blessing to the new standard bearer of his fledgling Kadima party.
Asked by daily Haaretz newspaper to describe Israel after he completes a hypothetical four-year term, the acting premier said: ‘It will be a country that's fun to live in... People will not only love it, but will also love to say they love it.’
But behind the bright and airy language, Olmert has outlined a hard plan of settlement consolidation and pullouts certain to infuriate the Palestinians and the roughly 240,000 Jewish settlers who live among them in the West Bank.
‘It will be a different country, in different borders. It will be separate from the vast majority of the Palestinian population. It will be a country with less external violence and more personal security.’
He said he envisaged the borders would include the West Bank settlement bloc of Gush Etzion, the ‘Ariel region’ of settlements in the north, the ‘Jerusalem envelope,’ Maale Adumim and the ‘Jordan River as a security border.’
Most controversially as regards the Palestinians, he said Israel's borders will follow the general path of the separation barrier being erected to cut off the West Bank from Israel.
The Palestinians complain that the barrier -- parts of which have been deemed illegal in a non-binding resolution from the world court -- often cuts deep into their territory and they worry that Israel will use it as the final border.
‘It could be that there will be cases in which we move the fence eastward, and it could be there will be cases in which we move it westward, in accordance with a line that we will agree upon,’ Olmert said.
That was a reference to the ‘domestic dialogue’ about the borders that he said he would begin immediately after the March 28 vote, provided he is elected as predicted by the opinion polls three weeks ahead of the vote.
Olmert said he would wait a ‘reasonable’ time to see whether Hamas, which won January's Palestinian election and is tasked with forming a new government, would recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous agreements.
If not, he would act unilaterally to determine the borders with as broad a domestic and international consensus as possible.
‘If, after a reasonable time passes, it becomes clear that the PA (Palestinian Authority) is not willing to accept these principles, we will need to begin to act,’ Olmert told the Jerusalem Post.
Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal has already described the Olmert plan as a ‘declaration of war on the Palestinian people.’
‘This is a unilateral disengagement on the part of Israel, based on its security interests and not on the demands of peace,’ he said.
‘Olmert is about to make the same mistakes with the Palestinian people that Sharon did.’
It was Sharon who set a precedent when he unilaterally withdrew Jewish settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip last summer after a 38-year-occupation, as well as dismantled four small and isolated West Bank enclaves.
Olmert also vowed to go ahead with the planned construction of 3,500 housing units on the edge of the largest West Bank Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim in a bid to connect the settlement to east Jerusalem, a plan which has come under hefty US criticism.
The Palestinians want to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state and warn that further Israeli settlement activity around the city would severe future connection between the southern and northern West Bank.