Home > Olmert: Pullout not meant to tighten hold over West Bank
Wars and conflicts International
Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied Palestinian suspicions that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, due to begin next week, was designed as a swap for permanent control over far bigger settlements in the West Bank.
Sharon has ruled out dialogue on a Palestinian state before Palestinians disarm militants. Palestinians call this demand unrealistic without statehood on the horizon and fear Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank could dash their dreams.
"Gaza is not a tradeoff for the West Bank," said Olmert, known for periodically testing Sharon’s thinking in public before policy is formed.
"We are prepared to carry on negotiations after the disengagement according to principles of the road map," said Olmert, referring to a U.S.-devised peace plan envisaging a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
Sharon has cast the dismantling of all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank more as a boon for Israeli security than a catalyst for negotiations toward a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
Olmert said, "We have no illusion that the pullout in itself will create peace between us and the Palestinians, but ... the Palestinians do deserve to have their own state alongside Israel, in boundaries which will have to determined."
But Sharon says blocs of West Bank enclaves with the vast majority of the 240,000 settlers can never be ceded on strategic grounds. The settlements’ rapid growth has cut deeply into land the Palestinians say undermine their aspirations to a viable state. (Reuters)