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JERUSALEM, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
said he would be swift to draw Israel's border in the West Bank, local newspaper
the Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.
According to the Post, Olmert sent out strong signals at Sunday' s cabinet
meeting that he was serious when he said before a March election that he
wouldn't "wait forever" for the Palestinians.
Before the March 28 election, Olmert said that his so-called "convergence
plan" would be implemented if, after a "reasonable period of time" it became
clear there was no partner on the Palestinian side.
He said at Sunday's meeting that it was already clear there was no
Palestinian partner, the Post reported.
Olmert was quoted by the Post as saying that following Hamas's
justification of last week's suicide attack in Tel Aviv, it was important "that
the diplomatic community, foreign ministries and government ministries around
the world absorb the fact that there is no partner here with whom it is possible
to talk."
On April 17, a suicide bombing attack hit the old central busstation in
southern Tel Aviv, killing nine civilians and wounding dozens of others.
The Hamas government, without condemning the attack, called it "an act of
self-defense."
Olmert has repeatedly voiced that Israel will not deal with a Hamas-led
Palestinian government if it rejects to recognize Israel, renounces violence and
accepts previous peace agreements.
The prime minister-designate is expected to form a coalition government
with some other parties since his centrist Kadima party, which won the most 29
seats in the next Knesset (parliament), is still short of a majority in the
120-member Knesset.
Olmert vowed before the election to set Israel's final borders by 2010 and
the new government would be based on his so-called "convergence plan," under
which Israel would withdraw isolated settlements in the West Bank but keep
bigger ones. Enditem |