A day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's new Kadima-led coalition took office, there is a dawning in the Israeli press that Mr Olmert's goal of a permanent Israeli withdrawal from parts of the West Bank may come true.
While Israeli papers fear withdrawal will drive a deeper wedge amongst Israelis, in the Palestinian and wider Arab press there is concern that increasing divisions among the Palestinians will prevent them challenging Israeli policy.
Anshel Pfeffer in Israel's Jerusalem Post
Olmert is starting his official tenure as the most hated figure in the West Bank settlements. His intentions are clear: he means to remove at least a quarter of them... by force if necessary. What's unclear is the majority that he commands for the implementation of his grand ‘convergence’ plan. One party in his coalition, Shas, has already been exempted from supporting it. Many of the rightwing MKs already accused him in their speeches yesterday of planning to expel Jews without a Jewish majority. The split in Olmert's Israel is very real right now, and the festive speeches yesterday about a Knesset that will unify the country already ring very hollow.
Shimon Schiffer in Israel's Yediot Aharonot
The obsessive preoccupation with the coalition negotiations and distribution of portfolios diverted attention from the real bang that happened: the government that will partition the land of Israel was born yesterday.
Ariel Sharon began to destroy the political order that had prevailed in Israel for scores of years when he carried out the disengagement... A look at the [new] Knesset plenum left no doubt: in the legislature there is a majority in favour of partitioning the land.
Nadav Haetzni in Israel's Ma'ariv
The chilling implication is already known from last summer: the uprooting of about 100,000 people, destruction of communities and transfer. But this time there is another element - the end of the Jewish presence in Bet El, Nablus, Shilo and even Kiryat Arba and Hebron...
In return for a Palestinian signature on an ‘agreed’ piece of paper and a friendly fax from Condoleezza Rice, the Olmert-Peretz government will renew the principle: evacuation until the last centimetre. Despite Olmert's current statements, he will desert Jerusalem and together with it every clod of earth beyond the Green Line...
We hope it will not lead to violence and bloodshed, but if Olmert and partners do not wise up they will lead us to an internal split that could create two peoples of Israel, those at home and those abroad.
Palestinian Al-Quds
The danger is approaching and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's [withdrawal] plan is supported by the US with the claim that there's no Palestinian partner after the Hamas government took office and declined to recognize the agreements reached [between Israel and the former Palestinian government]. Thus, time is precious and the Palestinian Authority should present a unified strategy to face Olmert's destructive plan.
Mahir Uthman in Palestinian Al-Ayyam
Any withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian occupied territories is something which deserves to be welcomed but not if the aim is to dismantle small settlements deep inside the West Bank in exchange for larger settlements for Israel.
Hamada Fara'nah in Jordan's Al-Ra'y
It is clear from the Olmert government's programme that the Israeli prime minister will evacuate the heart of the West Bank, its cities and areas that have a higher density of Palestinians. He will get rid of them and vacate them of settlers, but he will not take practical steps towards final status issues and will continue Sharon's unilateral project. He will also avoid negotiations with the PLO and the Palestinian National Authority under the silly pretext of not having a Palestinian partner.
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