ARAB-ISRAELI RELATIONS - July 27 - Israeli Official Advocates Partial Withdrawal From West Bank.

A senior member of the Israeli government advocates partial withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the West Bank, and Israeli officials raised the prospect of an initial pullback of forces from the quiet town of Jericho. Haim Ramon, a deputy PM and ally of PM Ehud Olmert, said on Israel Radio that the government should move quickly to negotiate the principles of a peace deal and leave "most" of the occupied West Bank. He told foreign diplomats he favored a withdrawal from 70% of the West Bank. Olmert was elected on a platform of unilateral Israeli withdrawal from about 90% of the West Bank, roughly to the security barrier Israel has built, but not including the three large settlement blocs inside the barrier. Ramon's proposal is short of that, but represents a renewal of the idea of an Israeli withdrawal, which had seemed to be off the table. Still, opinion polls show that nearly 60% of Israelis now believe that the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza was a mistake, compared with more than two-thirds who supported it at the time. "I believe right now we have a partner" in the non-Hamas Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, Ramon said. "I don't know for how long, so we must move quickly". The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his Fatah movement seem badly shaken by their defeat in Gaza by the Islamic group Hamas. That disaster has concentrated minds on both sides, with neither Israel nor Fatah wanting a similar outcome in the West Bank. To isolate Hamas in Gaza and bolster Fatah, Israel, the US and the EU have thrown support - and money - toward a new government led by a Western-educated, independent economist, Salam Fayyad. Like Abbas, Fayyad favors nonviolence and negotiation to achieve a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Abbas says he hopes to do so within a year. But the Palestinian world is divided. And there are pressures from Saudi Arabia in particular for Fatah and Hamas to come together in another unity government. Ramon's doubts, and his sense of urgency, reflect a general Israeli uncertainty over the future of Fatah and Abbas. Part of the effort to support Abbas is in the security field. Israeli troops and its counterterrorism agency have renewed co-operation with PA forces in the West Bank, now that Hamas is not in charge there. Israel now seems set to try again to reduce its footprint in the West Bank by handing over quiet areas and big cities to PA forces, to which Israel has agreed to give 1,000 automatic rifles. In 2000, before the second Intifada, Palestinian forces controlled large areas of the West Bank. Israel recaptured the area in 2002 in an effort to stop suicide bombings. Israel then built the separation barrier for the same reason, although Palestinians and some Israelis argue that the route of the barrier has political as well as security considerations, and the ICJ has ruled in a non-binding opinion that the route is illegal where it enters the West Bank. Israel has previously pulled back from cities recaptured in 2002, after former PM Ariel Sharon met Abbas in February 2005. Israel handed back Jericho and Tulkarm to Palestinian forces but soon took them back again, charging that Abbas's men were not suppressing terrorism. The promise to hand back Ramallah, Bethlehem and Qalqilya was never kept. Abbas is said to want Qalqilya back now, but Israeli officials say no, because the town borders Israel and Hamas is strong there. In an interview with Reuters, Abbas said that he would not run for a second term and that he would decree a change in legislative elections to remove constituency voting. Such a move, which should be made by the legislature, would favor Fatah and damage Hamas, which handily won the constituency part of the January 2006 election but only beat Fatah by 2.5 percentage points in the party vote. Abbas said he would order early elections soon but would not name a date. Hamas says it will not allow early elections. Legislative elections are due in January 2010. On Friday, Abbas said that after an inquiry, about 60 Fatah officers and leaders would be punished for their responsibility for the loss of Gaza. Some have already resigned. The Israeli army suspended a six-man platoon for shooting a Palestinian without justification on a patrol near Hebron. The soldiers did not give him first aid or report the incident, which occurred when they commandeered a Palestinian taxi and tied up the driver. When a Palestinian approached the car, he was shot in the neck. The soldiers then lied about what happened, the army said.