JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said after peace talks in Washington that failure to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians could threaten Israel's long-term survival.
A day after Israel and the Palestinians formally relaunched negotiations, Olmert's comments appeared in Thursday's Haaretz newspaper on the 60th anniversary of the passing of a U.N. resolution to partition British-run Palestine between Jews and Arabs -- a two-state solution that still eludes them.
"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights ... then, as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished," Olmert said.
For 40 years, Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, home to 4 million Arabs. However, to annex the territory and its people would, Israeli leaders say, undermine the Jewish nature of Israel, which has a population now of 7 million.
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed at a conference hosted by U.S. President George W. Bush this week to try to forge a peace treaty and create a Palestinian state by the end of 2008 -- a time scale sceptics say is too ambitious.
Both leaders are weak. Olmert is embroiled in a series of corruption scandals and faces resistance to concessions from within his coalition, while Abbas is locked in a power struggle with Hamas Islamists who control Gaza, which he wants for a future state, and have vowed to undermine peace talks.
The Israeli and Palestinian public are also sceptical. A poll in Israel's top-selling daily showed 83 percent of Israeli respondents did not expect a peace deal within a year, while many Palestinians doubt Abbas will protect their interests.
In a reminder of the violence that has plagued the region for decades, Israel killed four Hamas fighters in two air strikes in the south of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Hamas officials and Palestinian medical staff said.
