JERUSALEM — Ehud Olmert, Israel's acting prime minister, laid out his vision Tuesday for the country's future borders, suggesting Israel should exit more areas of the West Bank but keep some major settlement blocks and territory near the boundary with Jordan.
The comments, made to Israel's Channel 2 in Olmert's first media interview since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke Jan. 4, represented his most explicit remarks as interim leader on the nation's eventual borders.
Though the comments of the former Jerusalem mayor differed little from the approach set by Sharon, they take on added significance because Olmert now heads Sharon's party, which is leading in polls heading into March 28 national elections. And the stunning triumph by the militant group Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary elections Jan. 25 suddenly makes his task vastly more complicated.
"The direction is clear. We are heading toward a separation from the Palestinians. We are heading toward deciding on final borders for the state of Israel," Olmert said in the half-hour interview. "We will maintain the unity of Jerusalem. We will keep the main settlement blocks. But the borders of which we are thinking are not those in which Israel exists today."
Olmert has generally been given high marks for taking over with grace and authority from Sharon, who remains comatose in a Jerusalem hospital and is unlikely to return to politics. The television interview was his latest effort to step out of Sharon's shadow and craft his own image, reintroducing himself to Israelis and the world at an exceedingly delicate moment.
Olmert sidestepped the issue of whether he would push for additional unilateral withdrawals from the West Bank after Israel's pullout last summer from the Gaza Strip and four communities in the West Bank.
He expressed support for the U.S.-backed diplomatic blueprint known as the road map, a step-by-step plan for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and creation of a Palestinian state.
But in outlining possible future boundaries that would exclude much of the West Bank, Olmert left open at least the possibility of additional pullbacks by Israel.
Olmert said Israel should retain the Maale Adumim settlement and the Gush Etzion block near Jerusalem, and the large Ariel community near Tel Aviv. That view is in line with comments by Sharon and hews closely to Israel's position that the most populous settlements should remain in its hands.
