Last update - 00:00 10/09/2006
Peres: West Bank pullout off agenda due to events in Gaza, Lebanon
By Haaretz Service and the Associated Press
Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Sunday that the plan for a unilateral pullout in the West Bank has "disappeared" due to the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was elected in January on his "realignment" plan to pull out of large areas of the West Bank and beef up others in drawing Israel's final borders.
But the public no longer supports transferring land to the Palestinians after militants in the Gaza Strip tunneled into southern Israel and attacked an Israel Defense Forces post - killing two soldiers and kidnapping Gilad Shalit -
despite Israel's withdrawal from the coastal area, Peres said.
Israelis are also reluctant to agree to a West Bank withdrawal since Hezbollah killed three IDF soldiers and captured two others in another cross-border raid that led Israel to wage a 34-day war against the militia, Peres said.
"I think a one-sided realignment plan has disappeared because of what happened in Gaza and what happened in Lebanon," Peres told Israel Radio.
"We evacuated Gaza and Lebanon and they continued to fire from there like fools."
But Peres said Israel must consider other ways to proceed in talks with the Palestinians, which have not taken place for months.
"We have to find a way to move forward," he said.
Olmert said Saturday that he intended to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.