Olmert: Realignment in one step

In exclusive interview, prime minister clarifies that contrary to reports, he doesn’t want West Bank withdrawal in stages because that would ‘traumatize public.’ Olmert stresses: Nothing will stop me, I hope at end of my term reality here will be completely different Ynet

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he wanted to carry out West Bank withdrawal in one single step, which he believes will be less traumatic for the Israeli public.

In an exclusive Shavuot interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Olmert said: “I want to clarify that I am opposed to dividing the realignment into stages. This process will be difficult and painful even if it goes smoothly. I think carrying it out in stages will traumatize the public, and I have mentioned before that I am opposed to this.”

Regarding the realignment, Olmert said, “we will try to establish an infrastructure of international understanding, aiming to bring about borders…by concentrating Jewish communities and creating a contiguous Palestinian-governed territory. At a certain stage, there will be maps too. What is a plan? A plan is what you have in your head. In my head I have a plan. I don’t know it to a 1-mm resolution, but I certainly know what I want. We need to be patient.”

The prime minister added that he was determined to implement the realignment plan. “On this matter, nothing will stop me. That is why I am here. There is always the risk that the moment one takes the prime minister chair, it is very comfortable to pass four years at ceremonies and events. But I’ve passed that. I’ve been at all the ceremonies, the inaugurations and the memorial services. I feel that now is the moment of truth, in which I have to recruit all the soul’s resources and energies to take a step that will lead the Israeli nation to a different place. I hope that at the end of my term the reality here will be completely different.”

According to Olmert, the first time the disengagement plan was presented to the Knesset was almost a full year after it was drawn up. “I plan to do exactly what I promised. First I’ll check if circumstances permit negotiations with the Palestinians. People say, ‘he changed his mind.’ But whoever says that either is not listening or doesn’t understand: On January 25, in my Hertzliya speech, I addressed (PA Chairman) Mahmoud Abbas and said that I hope we can hold talks with him,” Olmert noted.

“I plan to meet with Abbas towards the end of June, after I meet (Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak, (Jordanian King) Abdullah and with European leaders. But I won’t concede the conditions to holding negotiations, as was established in the road map and by the Quartet. I will meet Abbas to see if there is a chance these conditions can be upheld. If they are, there will be talks. If not – we’ll act independently, but not alone. We will hold talks with the United States and the European community and try to create momentum with the other side, which isn’t the Palestinian side. I am not giving an ultimatum. It is not respectable or appropriate. I have a timetable but I’m not planning to announce it,” Olmert said.

Responding to Olmert’s comments, Head of the Binyamin Regional Council Pinhas Wallerstein said: “I can’t manage to understand Olmert’s words, because I’ve never heard from anyone why the realignment is a good thing. The disengagement brought the election of Hamas and Qassams on Ashkelon, so what good can come out of the realignment? There needs to be a discussion in society and it must be remembered that actually in the recent elections only Kadima was in favor of realignment.”

“Even if we count all the Left-wing parties, Meretz and Labor, it means that the Jewish public in Israel voted against the realignment. It is true that Olmert can get support in the Knesset by making deals, like with the pensioners’ party, but whoever voted for them didn’t vote for realignment. The people decided against it, and we will act accordingly,” Wallerstein said.

http://www.arutzsheva.net/news.php3?id=104730

How To Expel Jews: Three Opinions

13:10 Jun 01, '06 / 5 Sivan 5766

by Hillel Fendel

Olmert wants the next expulsion to be a one-shot affair, while Peres says it should take years - and the architect of the previous expulsion says it need not involve army force at all.

"The next disengagement will not be a military operation," says Brig.-Gen. Eival Giladi, who headed the Prime Minister's Bureau strategy planning team for the Gaza withdrawal. Speaking at a lecture this week at Haifa University, Giladi said it will instead be "the movement of people who will move themselves on their own..."

Giladi envisions a situation in which some of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria will be enticed to leave via financial compensation packages, followed by the others who will have no choice but to go in their footsteps.

"Imagine that in the beginning of 2007," Giladi said, "an 'Evacuation/Compensation Law' is passed for these people, and they start leaving on their own... We will offer them a financial package, and people will have time to make decisions... A supermarket won't be able to operate in a community in which only 5-6 families remain."

Giladi also said that in his opinion, there need be no Disengagement Authority - the body headed by Yonatan Bassi to coordinate the relocation of the expelled residents - for the coming expulsion. "Why repeat mistakes that didn't work in the past?" he asked.

Arutz-7 contacted Yossi Fuchs of the Land of Israel Legal Forum for his opinion. The forum has represented the interests of the Gush Katif expellees for well over a year on a volunteer basis. Fuchs said that Giladi's approach is worrisome in that it indicates that there will be no effort to rebuild communities. "Every resident will be on his own," Fuchs said, "with all the terrible ramifications that follow."

The Legal Forum was in the forefront of efforts last year at this time to ensure that the destroyed communities would be rebuilt elsewhere, in order to minimize the psychological damage inflicted upon the expellees.

Lior Kalfa, who was thrown out of N'vei Dekalim last year and who now heads the Gush Katif Residents Committee, agrees. "Even now, it is clear that those who went on their own are suffering the most, even more than the rest of us," he told Arutz-7. "I just spoke to one man last night, who is living in the north with his family, and he says that he wishes he could come back to join us, even with all our problems... If the worst happens, I say to the people of Yesha: Do not sign with the government on your own, but rather stick together as communities."

Both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Vice Premier Shimon Peres apparently do not agree with Giladi's non-military approach. Haaretz correspondent Aluf Benn reports that the two feel that the residents of Judea and Samaria will have to be expelled by force, but they disagree as to how to go about it. Peres feels it should be done in stages, whereas Olmert is of the opinion that it must be done in one fell swoop.

The Prime Minister feels, according to Benn, that Israel will receive greater international support and recognition in return for one major move than what can be expected from a series of smaller steps. Olmert similarly attempted to convince Ariel Sharon to remove more communities in the Shomron last year, hoping to avoid a series of internal crises.

Peres, however, feels that the government will be unable, financially and otherwise, to evacuate 60,000-80,000 settlers in one move. The previous disengagement took a year and cost ten billion shekels for 8,000 people, and Peres feels that these numbers must be multiplied by ten for Judea and Samaria.

In either event, many politicians feel that Israel does not have enough money to effect the transfer at all. MK Avigdor Lieberman, for instance, who heads the Yisrael Beiteinu party, recently told the Knesset that the unilateral withdrawal plan is "irrelevant" in that no government will be able to find the money to pay for it.

Published: 12:08 June 01, 2006
Last Update: 13:10 June 01, 2006

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