NYTimes: Olmert backs creation of Palestinian state

A NYTimes.com report yesterday that Israel's acting prime minister Ehud Olmert, "in his first major policy address since becoming Israel's acting prime minister, said today that he backed the creation of a Palestinian state, and that Israel would have to relinquish parts of the West Bank to maintain its Jewish majority."

The NYTimes.com report quoted him saying "We support the establishment of a modern, democratic Palestinian state .. The existence of two nations, one Jewish and one Palestinian, is the full solution to the national aspirations and problems of each of the peoples."

The NYTimes.com report said: Olmert said that the biggest challenge facing Israel was defining the country's permanent borders so that it could maintain a Jewish majority. All of the West Bank is part of "our historic homeland," Mr. Olmert said. But, he added, demographic realities will require handing back parts of the West Bank, which Israel captured during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. "The choice between allowing Jews to live in all parts of the land of Israel, and living in a state with a Jewish majority, mandates giving up parts of the Land of Israel," Mr. Olmert said. "We will not be able to continue ruling over the territories in which the majority of the Palestinian population lives."

The NYTimes.com report said that Olmert spoke of the possibility of a Palestinians state even "even before all the complicated issues connected to a final agreement are resolved," with the report adding that the "Palestinians have generally opposed interim measures, and prefer to focus on final-status issues.