Olmert wins Israeli election, to build coalition

JERUSALEM, Mar 29: Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert looked to begin building a coalition today after winning Israel's election on his plan to impose final borders with the Palestinians by uprooting many West Bank settlements.

Appealing to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Olmert said in a post-election speech that Israel was ready to live alongside the Palestinians in peace after decades of conflict.

But in the absence of peace talks now remote with the Islamist militant group Hamas about to take office Olmert has vowed to set Israel's frontier by 2010 by removing isolated West Bank settlements while expanding bigger blocs there.

Olmert's centrist Kadima party fared worse than expected in yesterday's parliamentary election, signalling he might struggle to sustain support for his historic plan.

However, some political analysts said Olmert should be able to stitch together a coalition that would avoid the need to negotiate with right-wing parties opposed to any withdrawal from West Bank land that settlers see as a biblical birthright.

Palestinians say such go-it-alone moves, sweeping measures that would uproot tens of thousands of Jewish settlers while tracing a border along a fortified barrier Israel is building inside the West Bank, would deny them a viable state.

With votes counted from 99.5 per cent of polling stations, official results showed Kadima with 28 seats in the 120-member parliament, centre-left Labour with 20, the ultra-Orthodox Shas with 13, ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu with 12 and right-wing Likud with 11.

Opinion polls had once predicted Kadima would win 44 seats.

Olmert said Jews had aspired for thousands of years to create a homeland throughout the Land of Israel, biblical territory that includes the West Bank.

''But acknowledging reality and circumstances, we are ready to compromise, to give up parts of the beloved Land of Israel ... and evacuate, with great pain, Jews living there, to create the conditions that will enable you to fulfil your dream and live alongside us,'' Olmert said.

If the Palestinians did not move towards peace, he said, ''Israel will take its destiny in hand'' and set permanent borders after lobbying the United States and others for support.

Abbas, who wants a two-state solution but has been weakened by Hamas's victory in elections in January, said the election would make no difference unless Olmert abandoned unilateralism.

''This result will not change (anything) as long as the agenda of Olmert himself does not change and he does not abandon the question of unilateral agreements,'' Abbas said in Khartoum.

COALITION HORSE-TRADING

Kadima was expected to seek a coalition with Labour and a clutch of small parties ranging from ultra-Orthodox Jewish factions to a pensioners' rights group.

''On the face of it, Olmert can form a coalition of 80 seats within a month. The question is how far can he go with such a government?'' wrote Yossi Verter, a political analyst for the Haaretz newspaper.

Israel Radio said Olmert would name teams today to start negotiations with other parties on forming a coalition.

Olmert's unilateral approach appeals to many Israelis worn down by a five-year-old Palestinian uprising and worried by the rise to power of Hamas, which is sworn to destroy Israel.

''Whoever was looking for a referendum got a referendum,'' wrote Sima Kadmon in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily.

Israelis voted on the day the Palestinian parliament approved a government formed by Hamas.

''While the election is being held in the Israeli entity, the flags of the Hamas government are being raised,'' Hamas's Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh told a rally in Gaza.

Olmert has ruled out any dealings with Hamas until it recognises Israel, disarms and accepts interim peace deals.

TRAUMA Some 60,000 West Bank settlers could be affected by Olmert's plan, far more than 8,500 removed from Gaza last year. Around 240,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

The trauma for settlers of any withdrawal could dwarf that of the Gaza withdrawal which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had championed in a reversal of policy. Sharon founded Kadima before suffering a stroke in January that sent him into a coma.

The World Court has ruled all 145 settlements Israel has built on occupied territory illegal. Israel disputes this.

President Moshe Katsav is expected to assign the task of putting together a government after consultations with parties on Sunday.

REUTERS