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Israeli rightists see Olmert's West Bank plan failing

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 11:28 CST

By Ori Lewis

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Supporters of Israel's right wing predicted on Wednesday that any coalition government led by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima faction would break apart over his West Bank pullback plan.

Olmert has pledged to uproot some Jewish settlements in the occupied territory, strengthen others and unilaterally set a border with the Palestinians if peacemaking remains frozen, a plan strongly opposed by settlers and their supporters.

"Kadima does not have enough power and the will to pass laws on settlement removal ... I think Kadima will split up before its four-year term is up," said Shai Neiman, 25, a Jerusalem resident who voted for the pro-settler National Union Party.

Kadima won 28 seats in the 120-member parliament in Tuesday's general election, a poorer showing than opinion polls had predicted but one that put it in position to form a coalition government.

Neiman predicted that Olmert, a veteran politician who stirs few emotions among Israelis, would have a hard time pushing through a pullback plan he has pledged to complete by 2010.

"People will not follow Olmert blindly, he will have lots of trouble ... I would have been much more worried if (Ariel) Sharon had been in charge, he managed to control the situation much more," he added.

Last year, Sharon, heading a government led by his right-wing Likud party, overcame political opposition to complete a pullout of Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip.

The former general bolted Likud in November in the face of an internal revolt over the withdrawal. He then founded Kadima but suffered a stroke in January and fell into a coma.

"Just wait two years and you'll see, there will be nothing left of Kadima ... they will fight among themselves and the government will break up," said Efraim Turkia, a 50-year-old electrician and a Likud member.

Likud suffered a stinging setback in Tuesday's vote, dropping to 11 parliamentary seats from the 37 it won in the previous election in 2003.

"I voted for Likud, I don't change parties just like I don't change wives in order to suit fashions," Turkia said.

But he said voters had punished Likud over infighting and perceived corruption at the top.

Yitzhak Tal, 27, a Jewish settler in the West Bank said the removal of more settlements "would be regretted for generations to come."

Tal, who voted for the National Union party, said the electoral results had prompted him and a growing number of fellow settlers to consider a more spiritual approach toward living on land to which they stake a biblical claim.

"There is a growing understanding among settlers that the real pioneering effort is not to live in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) but to go to live in secular areas and to try to influence people of the importance of returning to that land," he said.

Some 60,000 West Bank settlers could be affected by Olmert's plan, far more than the 8,500 removed from Gaza last year.

Some 240,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians want all of the West Bank and Gaza for a state of their own.

Source: REUTERS

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