Hamas furious at Israeli plans to carve up West Bank

The leader of Hamas has reacted with fury to the plans outlined by Israel's acting prime minister Ehud Olmert to unilaterally redraw Israel's borders on the West Bank by 2010. Khaled Mashal described the ideas for an imposed solution in the occupied territories with no negotiation with the Palestinians as tantamount to a "declaration of war." Olmert says, in interviews published in several major Israeli newspapers on Mar. 10, that he wants to impose a border in the West Bank, build a wall and move many Jewish settlers to the Israeli side–all with backing from the international community. While the plan would involve uprooting some Jewish settlements, it also would retain portions of the West Bank and strengthen the main settlements in those areas. Israel also would retain control over Jerusalem and link a large settlement to the city. The plan falls well short of the Palestinians' claims–supported by the United Nations–to be restored to all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle East war. "This is not a peace plan, but a war declaration, which will permit Israel to stay in the largest section of the West Bank, to maintain their wall and settlements, to refuse all concessions on Jerusalem and to reject the Palestinians' right of return," said Mashal. His party is in the process of forming a government of the Palestinian Authority after winning parliamentary elections in January. "It is a unilateral disengagement by Israel in the interest of its security needs and not the demands of peace," said Mashal. "Olmert is in the process of committing the same errors toward the Palestinians that [Ariel] Sharon did." For his part, Olmert says that he still hopes to reach a settlement with the Palestinians, but the chances of a deal have dimmed with Hamas's victory. Israel says that it will deal with the militant group only if it renounces violence. Hamas has repeatedly rejected this demand. Olmert has also threatened to assassinate the incoming Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, if he is involved in terrorism. "Anyone who is involved in planning terror attacks will be a legitimate target for liquidation," he told the Yediot Ahronot daily. If the Palestinians "prefer to be dragged into the axis of evil of Iran," then Israel will draw its own border in the West Bank based on its security needs, he added. "At the end of the process we will reach a complete separation from the vast majority of the Palestinian population," he told the Maariv daily. Mashal, a former physics teacher whose family lived near the West Bank town of Ramallah until the 1967 war, has previously broached the idea of a long-term truce with Israel, but has offered little in way of detail. "When Israel commits to pulling back to 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem, destroying the wall, dismantling the settlements, recognizing refugees and displaced Palestinians' right to return, and frees all the prisoners, then Hamas will take serious measures toward peace," he told the Agence France-Presse news agency. Olmert said the new border would not follow the exact route of the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. He told Yediot that he would try to work with Jewish settler leaders to try to get them to agree to the new line, moving settlers into settlements he plans to incorporate into Israel. "We will definitely change the route either east or west in accordance to internal Israeli agreement," he told the paper. "The fence that will be built... will be the border line that will separate Israel and the Palestinians. Israelis will not live beyond the fence." Olmert, a close confidant of Ariel Sharon who took over as acting prime minister after Sharon's stroke on Jan. 4, now seems ready to go further than his mentor, who ruled out any further unilateral action after the Gaza pullout. Sharon, 78, remains in a coma. Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator, urged Israel to return to the bargaining table. "Israel cannot determine my borders by dictating them to me. That only prolongs the conflict, rather than solving it," he said.