Israel PM sparks fury by calling for complete withdrawal from West Bank and Golan Heights



Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has stunned observers by declaring that Israel must withdraw from almost all the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 – the most far-reaching concessions ever offered by an Israeli leader.

Mr Olmert said Israel had a limited window of opportunity to take 'a historic step' in relations with the Palestinians and the Syrians.

His comments provoked outrage from the Right and amazement from the Left.

Olmert has been forced to step down over a corruption scandal and is currently heading a caretaker government while the newly-elected party leader Tzipi Livni tries to form a coalition.

Advice: Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, right, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni attend the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem yesterday

Olmert is more likely to be remembered for his ill-fated attack on Lebanon in 2006 than any peacemaking. He has no chance of achieving a breakthrough before he steps down.

'One more hill, another 100 metres, it's not something that will affect Israel's security,' Olmert told the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth on the eve of the Jewish New Year.

'What I am telling you now has not been said by any Israeli leader before me. The time has come to say these things. The time has come to put them on the table,' he declared.

The paper said Olmert's comments would complicate Livni's job even before she takes over. She has five weeks in which to form a government or call a general election.

'He places on the doorstep of his successor a foreign policy doctrine, the likes of which has never been spoken by an incumbent prime minister,' commented his interviewers.

Trouble: Israeli border police officers detain a Palestinian youth at the Qalandiya checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Ramallah

'At the end of the day, we will have to withdraw from the most decisive areas of the territories. In exchange for the same territories left in our hands, we will have to give compensation in the form of territories within the State of Israel,' Olmert said.

'We have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, the meaning of which is that in practice we will withdraw from almost all the territories, if not all the territories,' Olmert said.

'I think we are very close to an agreement,' he added.

Turning to Syria, Olmert said he had initiated secret talks in February 2007.

'It is true that an agreement with Syria comes with danger,' he said. 'Those who want to act with zero danger should move to Switzerland.'

'I'd like see if there is one serious person in the State of Israel who believes it is possible to make peace with the Syrians without eventually giving up the Golan Heights,' he said, referring to the strategic plateau which is the only occupied area outside Jerusalem formally annexed by Israel.

Dispute: Israeli border police officers stand guard near Palestinian women waiting to reach the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem

He admitted that his views had changed since he entered politics 35 years ago.

'For many of those years, I was unwilling to look at reality in all its depth,' he said.

His comments, signalling the most far-reaching concessions ever made in public by an Israeli leader, provoked fury among his critics.



The Right accused him of betraying his nationalist roots and tying the hands of future Israeli peace negotiators. The Left demanded to know how his policies in office for nearly three years squared with his new-found generosity.

'The prime minister's concession of the essential borders for defence is a gamble with our very existence, and the future of the State of Israel,' said Yuval Steinitz, a right-wing MP and former chairman of the Knesset Defence Committee.



Steinitz said Olmert did not understand 'the fundamentals of security.'

Yossi Beilin, a leading doveish MP, said Olmert's change of heart had come too late.

'Olmert has committed the unforgivable sin of revealing his true stance on Israel's national interest just when he has nothing left to lose,' said Beilin.

'You believe it is in Israel's national interest to make peace, but for two-and-a-half years, almost three years, all you have done is wage an unnecessary war in Lebanon and… stifle any peace process,' Beilin told Olmert via Army Radio.









