Olmert: We must evacuate Jews

TEL AVIV – With almost all votes counted from yesterday's national elections, Kadima leader Ehud Olmert is set to become Israel's next prime minister as results showed his party won the most Knesset seats by a slim majority.

During his victory speech last night, Olmert made clear his administration will immediately seek to "evacuate Jews" from most of the West Bank. Kadima officials also have stated the party would seek to give parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians to form a state.

"The people have spoken clearly, they want Kadima," Olmert said in a nationally televised victory ceremony. "A chapter in the history of the country has ended. We're tasked with shaping the future of the state, and before we bring peace with our neighbors we must make peace within, us patiently and with love."

Olmert spoke about the need to renounce the dream of the "Greater Land of Israel and evacuate, with much pain, Jews."

The "Greater Land of Israel" usually refers to a Jewish state that includes the Gaza Strip, West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem.

Ballot counts showed a minor election victory for Kadima, with the party winning 28 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, much less than it had anticipated. The leftist Labor Party took 20 seats. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party won 13 seats. Yisroel Beitanu, a new Russian immigrant party, garnered 12 seats.

Likud, led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, finished in fifth place with 11 seats. Calls for Netanyahu to resign already started pouring in from senior members of his own party.

The leader of the party that wins the most seats becomes prime minister and forms a governing coalition. Traditionally, Israeli government coalitions ruled by a leading party with less than 40 seats – which is now the case with Kadima – tend to be unstable and short-lived.

Since Kadima did not win a majority, it will need to form a coalition with several parties. Analysts expect a Kadima-Labor-Pensioners-Shas government with Likud placed in the opposition, although senior sources in Likud told WND the party would consider joining Olmert's new government if Netanyahu is offered the post of minister of finance.

Olmert last month announced if his party wins the elections he would "change Israel's borders" by withdrawing from most of the West Bank, which is within rocket-firing range of Jerusalem and which military strategists long have estimated Israel must maintain to defend its borders from any ground invasion.

Olmert said under his plan Israel will maintain select security zones and some of the area's major West Bank Jewish communities, alluding to evacuating West Bank towns that fall outside Israel's security fence.

About 200,000 Jews live in the West Bank. The security fence, still under construction in certain areas, cordons off nearly 95 percent of the territory from Israel's pre-1967 borders. More than half the West Bank's Jewish residents reside on the side of the fence closest to Israel. About 80,000 more Jews live on the other side of the barrier.

Netanyahu earlier this week warned Israeli elections would determine whether Jerusalem remains the undivided capital of the Jewish state or is given to the Palestinians by Kadima in the near future.

"Without a strong Likud, we will not have sovereignty in Jerusalem," Netanyahu told reporters during a campaign stop at the Western Wall yesterday. "Only a strong Likud can maintain Jerusalem. Kadima and the left will divide Jerusalem and once you start dividing, you never know where it's going to end. There is no way to safeguard Jerusalem without the nationalist camp, and there is no nationalist camp without the Likud."

Last week, just days before the elections, the Kadima Party revealed it would divide Jerusalem and allow a Palestinian state to be established in parts of Israel's "eternal capital."

"The Old City, Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives, the City of David, Sheikh Jarra will remain in our hands, but [regarding] Kafr Akeb, Abu-Ram, Shuafat, Hizma, Abu-Zaim, Abu-Tur, Abu Dis, in the future, when the Palestinian state is established, they will become its capital," said Otniel Schneller, a Kadima member who represented the party at an official debate last week on dividing Jerusalem.

The revelation followed months of denials by top Kadima officials that the party would advocate withdrawing from Jerusalem.

The neighborhoods Schneller listed are located on Jerusalem's periphery, near the city's border with the West Bank.

Schneller said Kadima supports "separation between us and the Palestinians who don't live in the heart of Jerusalem," claiming there would be "no concessions" on sites that are sacred to Jews.

Several Kadima officials and leaders associated with Sharon previously made statements about dividing Jerusalem that immediately were denied by the party.

Kadima's claims last week of "only" withdrawing from peripheral sections of Jerusalem worry many here. The Israeli government has denied previous withdrawal plans only to carry them out later, followed by announcements of more withdrawals in larger magnitudes from areas it pledged not to vacate.

Olmert was the first Sharon deputy to go public with Israel's plan to evacuate its Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank communities. That plan was at first denied but later announced by Sharon. Israel withdrew from Gaza and the West Bank towns this past August, claiming there would be no further West Bank withdrawals.

Following the Gaza withdrawal, Olmert made statements about withdrawing from large sections of the West Bank. His statements immediately were denied by Sharon. But Olmert has since made public his West Bank withdrawal plan.

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