JERUSALEM, May 4 — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert won formal parliamentary approval for his coalition government on Thursday, and he told Parliament he was prepared to set Israel's boundaries during its four-year term.
In laying out the policies of his new government, Mr. Olmert also raised his concerns about Iran and its nuclear program, saying he took seriously the threats by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to destroy Israel.
‘We must not ignore what the president of Iran says — he means everything he says,’ Mr. Olmert told lawmakers.
In Tehran, Iran's top army brass on Thursday retracted a threat made Tuesday that Iran would make Israel a target if Iran came under American attack over its nuclear program, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, a deputy chief of general staff in charge of propaganda, saying the warning by a lower-ranking spokesman carries ‘no value in the eyes of the Iranian armed forces.’
But Mr. Olmert's focus on Thursday was on the borders he hopes to draw with the West Bank, with or without Palestinian involvement.
‘The borders of Israel that will be formed in the coming years will be significantly different from the territories under Israel's control today,’ said Mr. Olmert, who has set a target date of 2010 for drawing the boundaries.
He has not specified the exact borders, but he has said that Israel's West Bank separation barrier will form the basis for its border there. Most Jewish settlers in the West Bank live on the Israeli side of the barrier, in large settlement blocs, and Mr. Olmert said those blocs would be strengthened and remain under Israeli control. But tens of thousands live beyond the barrier and are seen as candidates for evacuation.
‘Even if the Jewish eye tears and the heart is broken, we must keep sight of the main principle,’ he said. ‘We have to maintain a strong and stable Jewish majority in our country.’
Mr. Olmert and Israeli security officials have left open the possibility that, for security reasons, Israeli soldiers could remain in parts of the West Bank after settlers have been evacuated. In his speech on Thursday, Mr. Olmert said: ‘These borders must be defensible and ensure a solid Jewish majority. The security fence will be adjusted to the borders formulated, east and west. The operational range of the security forces will not be limited, and will be in accordance with the security reality with which we have to deal.’
Mr. Olmert said he would offer to negotiate with the Palestinians, but with the Palestinian Authority being run by Hamas, the militant Islamic group, no prospect of talks exists.
‘We will give the Palestinian Authority the opportunity to show that it is aware of its responsibilities and is willing to change,’ Mr. Olmert said. ‘But we won't wait forever.’
While Palestinians would welcome an Israeli pullback in the West Bank, they seek all of the territory as part of a future state, including a capital in East Jerusalem, and say they will not accept any border Israel draws unilaterally.
Mr. Olmert's centrist Kadima Party won the March 28 election, and he will lead a four-party coalition that controls 67 of the 120 seats in the Parliament. In addition to Kadima, which has 29 seats, the parties in the coalition are the left-leaning Labor Party, with 19 seats; Shas, an ultra-Orthodox religious party with 12 legislators; and the Pensioners Party, which won 7 seats.
Mr. Olmert had been the acting prime minister since Ariel Sharon had a stroke on Jan. 4 that left him in a coma. But Mr. Olmert did not formally become the prime minister until Thursday.
The new vice prime minister, the post Mr. Olmert held in the previous government, is Tzipi Livni, who is also foreign minister.
Mr. Olmert has not said when he might present his proposal for setting the borders and withdrawing settlers, though it is expected to take at least months of planning.
Meanwhile, he is facing criticism from right-wing parties that oppose the idea.
‘There has never been a government that has given up so much ahead of time and relieves the other side of its obligations,’ said Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Likud, the largest opposition party in Parliament.
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu Party, started a heated argument when he said that Arab members of Parliament who recently met with Hamas should be tried on treason charges, and that he hoped they would be executed.
‘The Second World War ended with the Nuremberg trials and the execution of the Nazi leadership,’ Mr. Lieberman said. ‘Not only them, but also those who collaborated with them. I hope that will also be the fate of the collaborators in this house.’
Several Arab legislators called his remarks racist.