JERUSALEM (AFP) — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the "hand of God" had helped create an international climate that is favourable to Israel in its peace negotiations with the Palestinians, according to an interview published on Friday.
"If there's a chance to reach an agreement in the presidential term of George Bush, that's preferable," Olmert said in an interview with the English-language Jerusalem Post published ahead of Bush's landmark visit to the region next week.
"It's not merely Bush's presidency. It's a concidence that is almost 'the hand of God:' that Bush is president of the United States, that Nicolas Sarkozy is the president of France, that Angela Merkel is the chancellor of Germany, that Gordon Brown is the prime minister of England and that the special envoy to the Middle East is Tony Blair."
"What possible combination could be more comfortable for the state of Israel? So why would I gamble on what might be?"
He said that despite this favourable environment, Israel would have to make concessions if it hoped to achieve peace with its Palestinian neighbours.
"The world that is friendly to Israel -- not the world comprised of fanatics and extremists -- the world that really supports Israel, when it speaks of the future, it speaks of Israel in terms of the '67 borders. It speaks of division of Jerusalem. We must remember this."
Olmert's interview was published ahead of next week's landmark visit to the region by Bush, the first one to Israel and the Palestinian territories by a sitting US president in nine years.
Bush aims to advance final status negotiations that the Israeli premier and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas relaunched at a US conference hosted by the American president in late November, after nearly a seven-year hiatus.
At the time they both pledged to aim for a final agreement by the end of 2008, just weeks before Bush is to leave office.
"I don't know if I will be able to meet the timetable and I never promised that I would. I said that I hoped so but I don't know.
"But let me ask you: If there's a chance to reach an agreement and to get assistance to complete an agreement, what is better for us, that it be done in the era of President Bush or that of another president when we at the moment can't exactly know who that president will be and what his positions will be?"
Olmert heaped praise on Bush, saying "in all my years of public life, since 1973, I don't recall that America was led by someone as friendly since the days of president (Gerald) Ford" and adding that "he doesn't apply pressure."
"I don't recall another preisdent who systematically and consistently showed the same level of commitment to Israel as George W. Bush," adding that "with him, I know for certain that he backs our red lines" and that "he doesn't say a thing that he thinks will make life harder for Israel."
Olmert reiterated that "we will honour our obligations as set out in the roadmap," the 2003 international roadmap peace blueprint that called on Israel to halt settlement activity and on the Palestinians to boost security.
But he reiterated that Israel had no intention of giving up some of the large settlement blocks in the occupied Palestinian territory, notably the Maale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem -- one of West Bank's largest.
"Maale Adumim is an indivisible part of Jerusalem and the State of Israel. I don't think when they're talking about settlements they are talking about Maale Adumim."
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