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New Coalition Government in Jerusalem

After Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert formed a coalition earlier this week that he hopes will help Israel to carry out his plan to redraw Jewish settlement lines in the West Bank, Israel`s new government will take office on Thursday. Olmert`s governing coalition will control at least 67 seats in the 120 seat parliament, or Knesset, in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem.

Mr. Olmert was forced to seek partnerships, signing agreements with center-left Labor, the ultra-Orthodox Shas faction and the single-issue Pensioner`s Party, after Olmert`s centrist Kadima, founded by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, led the pack in the March 28 election but ended up falling short of the number of seats which would have made it easier to form a parliamentary majority.

According to reports, in the absence of peace talks with the Palestinians, Olmert has pledged to dismantle isolated West Bank settlements, bolster the main settlement blocs (moving settlers from outlying communities into the blocs themselves), and basically set Israel`s permanent borders by 2010. A former Jerusalem mayor, Olmert says he will not wait for long for Hamas, the terrorist group now heading the Palestinian Authority`s government, to show if it will moderate its positions - which call for Israel`s destruction - and become a peace partner