Olmert from Gaza withdrawal initiative to re-occupation

Mehdi Shakibayi: Zionist regime's housing ministry recently put to bid a proposal to construct 200 residential buildings in the West Bank and Beit-ul Moqaddas. In another similar move, the regime approved the construction of 600 new buildings inside al-Qods territories.

The approval by the cabinet of the regime's premier Ehud Olmert which until a few months earlier was boasting of 'well-though' plans to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflicts exposed a paradox of politics inside the regime's decision making machine.

The resumption of settlement expansion policies over the Palestinian territories helps prove how far the fledgling Kadima party has gone in dealing with the ongoing situation in Israel.

Kadima was established by the incapacitated premier Ariel Sharon in a bid to handle new developments in the region and the world as a fresh affiliation, called Resistance, was increasingly developing authority in the region.

Kadima took to the stage of politics by setting forward a proposal which later was dubbed a one-sided withdrawal from the West Bank. A smaller version of the drive had been carried out by Sharon in Gaza when he was leading the now-dissolved Likud party.

Sharon was intended to pave the way from the establishment of a half-sized Palestinian state whose borders would be defined by the extent of the regime's colonial wall only after the one-sided withdrawal was complete.

His rue intention however was to provide a counter-balance to the advancing Palestinian population. With a Palestinian state at hand, even a dwarf one, the whole Palestinian diplomacy would face a fete accompli and would concede to its possible implications. Nevertheless, Sharon found no chance to test how efficient his drive would prove in practice.

Ollmert, the then mayor of Beit ul-Moqaddas, took place of Sharon in January 2006 with the motto of determining permanent borders of Israel. But the span of 24 months was enough to prove the unilateral drives of his predecessor would go nowhere.

Olmert however was adamant to carry out the one-sided withdrawal drive from West Bank and tried to woo Palestinian Authority officials that the project would be a launch pad for a 'peace' initiative. The seemingly positive situation after the regime's withdrawal (read flight) from Gaza has helped Olmert to think positively about the plan.

The victory of Hamas in 2006 parliamentary elections and the regime's defeat against Hezbollah movement a few months later however sent shockwaves through the regime and ruined the much touted dreams of Kadima, Sharon and Olmert for the future of Israel.

The resumption of settlement expansion then would be better interpreted as a clear rupture in the fledgling party's policy which was expected to cater to the new Israeli conditions.