Posted on 05/10/2005 11:19:40 AM PDT by strategofr
JERUSALEM -- Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday he is unsure the government will survive long past its pullout from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank this August -- a development that would cloud efforts to restart the stalled peace process.
In an interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Olmert said the momentum for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations depends to a large extent on whether Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas can rein in militants and stop attacks on Israel following the withdrawal. But even if the Palestinians can quiet the militants, the next move in the peace process is uncertain because of doubts about the future of Israel's fragile ruling coalition.
"Leave aside the Palestinians; I don't know if we're going to have a government after the disengagement," said Mr. Olmert, who heads Israel's trade ministry and is considered a close ally of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Israel's next general elections are scheduled for November 2006, and as time passes there will be increasing pressure on lawmakers to dissolve the parliament and hold an early vote, the minister said. Mr. Olmert noted that Mr. Sharon's largest coalition partner, the dovish Labor Party, may decide to part ways with Mr. Sharon's Likud Party after the task of evacuating settlements is finished.
Next month, Labor is selecting a new chairman, and the leader could move the party into the opposition as a way to burnish its credentials for the elections.
(Excerpt) Read more at insider.washingtontimes.com ...
Regardless of whether it makes sense or not! (I think it does.)
The reason the pullout must happen is that Bush gave Israel more than any US President in history, the Gaza pullout is the quid pro quo, and it must be honored for the sake of US-Israel relations.
The Palestinians should be living in Jordan. That is where they were supposed to go according to the 1947 British Mandate.
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