Acting Israeli PM: Israel ultimately seeks separation
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-06 09:34

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel would take the initiative to separate from the Palestinians if they were not "mature" enough to cooperate in the process.

Israeli acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem Sunday March. 5, 2006. Olmert called on religious leaders Sunday to show restraint and help defuse tensions after this weekend's church riots in Nazareth, where an Israeli family set off small explosives late Friday in the Basilica of the Annunciation, leading to a tense standoff with hundreds of angry Arab residents of Nazareth. [AP]

Olmert, speaking by satellite from Jerusalem to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, said he was not pessimistic about the future and would work with the Palestinians to "build up a process to solve outstanding issues" between them.

But, he said, Israel also aspired "to ultimately decide on the permanent borders for the state of Israel while separating from the Palestinians."

Olmert added that Israel "will take the initiative if we will find that the Palestinians are not ready, are not prepared, or not mature enough to be able to make the necessary adjustments within themselves in order to be ready for this challenge."

Border-setting is the key agenda of the Israeli leader's Kadima Party, which holds a commanding lead ahead of the March 28 parliamentary vote.

Olmert has previously said that should negotiations fail, he would draw Israel's borders unilaterally, continuing a process started over the summer when the Israelis evacuated the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements.

Earlier Sunday, a top political Olmert ally said the prime minister plans to embark on another unilateral West Bank withdrawal immediately after forming Israel's next government.

Avi Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet security service, told Israel Radio that Olmert also plans to set Israel's final borders within four years if he wins upcoming elections. It was the most explicit statement yet of Olmert's plans.

Olmert didn't specifically address Dichter's comments.

Olmert also said Sunday that Israel would not cooperate with Hamas unless the Islamic militant group agreed to recognize and make peace with Israel.

Hamas is setting up a new Palestinian Cabinet after sweeping parliamentary elections in January. Hamas does not accept the presence of a Jewish state in the Mideast and has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel.

Olmert also called Iran, which is under international scrutiny for what some see as its drive to obtain nuclear weapons, "a major threat to all the civilized world."

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told the AIPAC conference that a failure by the U.N. Security Council to deal with Iran's drive for nuclear weapons would "do lasting damage to the credibility of the council."

"The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses," Bolton said, "the harder and more intractable it will become to solve."