Editorial; Lebanon Daily Star , 10.03.06

A question on the minds of many in the region is, when, if ever, will Israel's territorial expansion come to an end? This week, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted that the end is nowhere in sight. In two separate interviews with the Israeli press, Olmert vowed that if he is elected, he will conquer more Palestinian territory and set Israel's final borders within the next four years. According to Olmert's vision, by 2010, Israel's permanent borders would closely follow the path of the separation barrier that the Jewish state is currently building in the West Bank and would annex huge swathes of land that Palestinians want for a future state, including territory as far from Israel as the Jordan River.
 
Olmert's announcement comes as confirmation of Palestinians' worst fears: that Israel's separation barrier is an attempt to seize land beyond the 1967 borders. Palestinians have long called the barrier a "land grab," but this was a charge that Israeli officials, who say that the wall is just a safety measure, have long denied. But now the acting premier is being forthright about Israel's plans to consolidate Israeli control over as much Palestinian territory as possible, while resolving the "demographic problem" by preserving a Jewish majority on Israel's side of a unilaterally imposed border.
 
Olmert, who is in the middle of a fierce election battle in Israel, could be merely trying to capitalize on the Israeli public's admiration for former coma-stricken Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was a key architect of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last year. But even the majority of the Israel public seems to recognize the folly of unilateralism. An opinion poll published in Haaretz on Thursday found that more Israelis (48.5 percent) oppose a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank than favor it (37 percent).
 
Perhaps most Israelis recognize that any effort to unilaterally draw a final border that expands Israel's territory into areas annexed in 1967 will result, not in permanent borders, but in permanent crisis. The Israelis cannot expect a peace that does not take into account the aspirations of the Palestinian people. Any attempt to annex more Palestinian land will only sow the seeds of future conflict.
 
Both the Israeli and Palestinian publics are tired of nearly 60 years of war and long for peace, but an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will not come through unilateral actions. Peace will only come with a bilateral process that recognizes the rights and aspirations of both peoples.