PM Ehud Olmert and ministers Peretz, Livni and Peres attending the swearing-in of the new government in Jerusalem on Thursday.

The division of the land is "Zionism's lifeline," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset on Thursday in a speech presenting his new government.

The Knesset approved the government by a majority of 65-49, with the votes in favor coming from the four coalition partners: Kadima, Labor, Shas and the Pensioners Party. All the opposition parties voted against.

MK Marina Solodkin, the ruling Kadima party's most senior representative from the Russian immigrant community, skipped the vote to protest Olmert's decision not to appoint her a minister, thereby making his government the first in over a decade with no immigrants in the cabinet.

Reiterating his campaign pledge to determine the country's borders in a fashion "significantly different from the territory currently held by Israel," Olmert stressed that anyone who believes in "complete equality of civil rights between Jews and Arabs must understand that a division of the land, with the goal of ensuring a Jewish majority, is Zionism's lifeline."

Olmert also reiterated his pledge to retain the major settlement blocs, a statement that led a Hamas spokesman in the territories to say that "Olmert's clinging to the settlement blocs is a real declaration of war, and we will deal with it via all possible means."

Olmert also used his speech, which was interrupted periodically by catcalls from opposition MKs, to reject charges that his 25-member cabinet is excessive. "This government has fewer office-holders than did previous governments, and no deputy ministers," he said.

He praised the government guidelines, saying that they were "perhaps unprecedented" in that "we did not try to obscure what the government's national agenda would be after the elections."

And he urged all MKs to be tolerant of those with opposing views. "No one here is more or less patriotic," he said. "No one here has a monopoly on love of the land."

After the vote, Olmert took his oath of loyalty, followed by the other 24 ministers. When he descended from the podium, he was greeted with kisses from fellow ministers Abraham Hirchson and Roni Bar-On and handshakes from two senior opposition MKs, Benjamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom of Likud.

However, the swearing-in ceremony suffered an embarrassing hitch when several of the pens placed on the podium for the ministers to use in signing their oaths failed to write, forcing the new cabinet to go hunting for other pens.

Following the ceremony, the new ministers took their seats, and Olmert for the first time occupied the chair formerly occupied by Ariel Sharon.

Afterward, the ministers decamped to a reception in the office of newly appointed Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik. At the reception, Olmert said that he was proud of the fact that his government had racked up two "firsts" in its first day - Itzik's election as the first female speaker of the Knesset, and the appointment of another woman, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, as Olmert's deputy and designated replacement should he be out of the country or incapacitated.

Olmert: A wish doesn't a foreign policy plan make
In his speech during Thursday's swearing-in of the new cabinet, Olmert reiterated his intention to change the borders of the country.

"The borders of Israel that will be shaped over the coming years will be significantly different from the territory currently held by Israel. That is the government's plan, that is the foundation of its existence. That is the promise we gave to the Israeli voter whose trust we asked for and received."

Olmert added that his government aspires to an agreement based on a broad consensus within Israel, above all, and afterward "with our friends around the world." He stressed that the kind of comprehensive measures that he envisions "cannot be realized without an understanding with many elements within the international community."

Striking a personal note, Olmert said that like many others he dreamed that Israel could hold onto all the territory of the Land of Israel: "Only a person in whose soul Eretz Yisrael burns knows the pain of letting go of our ancestral heritage. But wishing and recognizing a right do not constitute a foreign policy plan. Even if the Jewish eye cries and the heart is torn, we must preserve the main thing. We must maintain a stable and strong Jewish majority in our state, and therefore we must focus on the area where there is a secure and protected Jewish majority."

Olmert said that last summer's disengagement from the Gaza Strip was the "first, critical step in this direction, but the main part lies ahead."