FINAL DESTINATION:

Labor's safety net may help Sharon "move" some settlements (Ellis Shuman, December 10, 2003, Israeli Insider)

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee yesterday that as part of the "unilateral steps" he would take if the Palestinians caused the "road map" peace initiative to fail, he would "move" some settlements. Last night Sharon met with opposition leader MK Shimon Peres; media analysts suggested that Sharon was preparing the groundwork for Labor's support of his unilateral plans.

We are months, not years, away from achieving the Road Map.

MORE:
Olmert: plan includes dismantling many settlements (Aluf Benn and Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies, 11/12/2003)

Israel's Deputy Prime Minister said Thursday Israel would have to dismantle "a considerable amount of settlements" under his plan for a unilateral withdrawal from some areas of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Ehud Olmert said he would soon reveal precise details of his plans for an Israeli pullback from some areas and the annexation of others.

Israel had to be prepared to take action on its own if peace talks with the Palestinians fail, something he regards as inevitable. [...]

Olmert would not name which settlements were to be uprooted under his plan, but "a considerable amount of settlements and a considerable number of people will have to move into different areas."

However, Olmert said that Israel would not pull back to its borders before the 1967 War or relinquish all of East Jerusalem.

"This will not be identical to the 1967 borders. Definitely not. It will include on the Israeli side the united city of Jerusalem. But it will be a lot different from the reality that exists today," Olmert said. [...]

"Unilateral separation will reduce the chances of fighting to a minimum because it will be an entirely new reality. That's precisely what scares the Palestinians," Olmert said, adding that the fate of the peace process was in the hands of the Palestinians.

"If they are unable to go ahead and unwilling to fight terror organizations, then there will be a unilateral, comprehensive step taken by the state of Israel, and I think that may indeed change fundamentally the situation in the Middle East," Olmert said.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 11, 2003 9:37 AM