[Ha'aretz] Aluf Benn - In an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua prior to his departure Sunday for a three-day visit to China, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed his disappointment with the results of Israel's two unilateral withdrawals, saying that the violence in both Lebanon and Gaza convinced him that there is no point in any future unilateral moves of this kind. "A year ago, I believed that we would be able to do this unilaterally," the prime minister said, referring to a withdrawal from the West Bank. "However, it should be said that our experience in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip is not encouraging. We pulled out of Lebanon unilaterally, and see what happened. We pulled out of the Gaza Strip completely, to the international border, and every day they are firing Kassam rockets at Israelis." Olmert's conclusion was that "under the existing circumstances, it would be more practical to achieve a two-state solution through negotiations rather than [unilateral] withdrawal."
2007-01-09 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive