Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approached the United States with his plan to determine Israel's borders before making it public, an aide said Sunday, reflecting how crucial U.S. support would be for any initiative to separate from the Palestinians.
Ariel Sharon similarly brought the U.S. into the loop early three years ago when he embarked on his historic Gaza Strip pullout. Sharon was felled by a stroke on Jan. 4 and remains in a coma. Olmert, his closest political ally, became acting prime minister.
Olmert's spokesman, Asaf Shariv, said an aide to the acting prime minister presented the plan to a U.S. official before Olmert disclosed it last week in interviews.
‘They neither approved nor objected to it,’ Shariv said.
Stewart Tuttle, a U.S. Embassy spokesman, was unable to confirm that the conversation took place.
In his interviews, Olmert said he planed to move tens of thousands of settlers from their present West Bank locations into the larger settlement blocs, and maintain control of the strategic Jordan River valley and Jerusalem holy sites. The plan effectively leaves the rest of the territory for the Palestinians and has energized Israel's election campaign.
Olmert's main hard-line rival in the March 28 vote, Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, declared the election a referendum on the future of Israel's presence in the West Bank. Dovish Labor Party leaders said Olmert is copying their platform while ruling out talks with the Palestinians.
In an analysis, ‘The End of Ambiguity,’ Yossi Verte of the Haaretz daily wrote, ‘Everything is on the table ... now it's up to the voter,’ adding, ‘There's no doubt that Olmert has taken a courageous move.’
Though still ahead in the polls, Olmert's Kadima Party has been slipping a bit, and analysts said he presented his detailed plan in an effort to shore up support.
At least tacit U.S. approval would be critical, as the U.S. is Israel's most important ally.
Sharon extracted a statement from President Bush that final borders between Israel and the Palestinians would have to take into account demographic changes since Israel captured the West Bank in 1967, taken to mean that Israel would annex some settlement blocs.
However, U.S. officials have reacted coolly to Israeli claims on the Ariel settlement bloc, deep inside the West Bank, and the Jordan valley. Also, up to now, the U.S. has insisted that borders must be set through negotiations and has opposed unilateral Israeli moves.
The victory by Hamas in January Palestinian elections changed the equation. Israel, the U.S. and European Union consider Hamas a ‘terror’ organization. Israel has ruled out talks with Hamas.
Palestinians rejected Olmert's plan, insisting final borders must be negotiated, and a senior Hamas official criticized it Sunday.
‘It's a unilateral separation plan,’ Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of Hamas' political bureau, told The Associated Press by phone from Saudi Arabia. ‘This cannot be accepted by any Palestinian because it violates our people's rights.’
Hamas is putting together a new Palestinian government, and on Sunday a Hamas official said its legislative plan would call for continued ‘resistance’ to Israel. The Israelis interpret ‘resistance’ as ‘terror’ attacks. Hamas has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, but none in the past year during a cease-fire.
After Sharon completed his pullout from Gaza, tearing down 21 settlements there and also four small ones in the West Bank, he said there would be no more unilateral Israeli pullbacks. When that did not satisfy rebels in his Likud, Sharon broke away and founded the centrist Kadima Party in November.