Sharon defends plan to evacuate settlements

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday defended his plan to dismantle virtually all Jewish settlements in Gaza, and there were new signs the proposal threatened the stability of his government.

Ten lawmakers from the ruling Likud Party sent a letter to Sharon threatening to abandon the prime minister if he moves forward with his plans without their consent.

"We announce beforehand that it will be very difficult for us to support this plan without the approval of the Likud institutions on this sensitive subject," the lawmakers wrote. They added that they would not support the entry of the opposition Labor Party into the government.

A senior official said Sharon would put his unilateral disengagement plan -- including removing some settlements and imposing a boundary on the West Bank if peace talks fail -- before a national referendum, as demanded by Likud lawmakers.

Unilateral plans

Sharon welcomes a referendum because the issue cuts across ideological lines and "has overwhelming support among the public," the official said on condition of anonymity.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher offered tacit U.S. approval.

"It's important that we start to make progress in resolving this issue and removing it as a difficulty between the two parties, setting up a situation where Israelis and Palestinians can both have stable lives," he said.

"Action on settlements, action to remove settlements as a source of tension and a source of difficulty is good," he said.

But the U.S. official said, "we've always been concerned about any steps that could attempt to unilaterally end the process or unilaterally impose a settlement."

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave strong backing Wednesday to Sharon's settlement plan, saying it could provide new momentum for Mideast peace.

"The withdrawal from Gaza that has been announced by the prime minister -- if it does take place -- can really give us a very important moment, a new dynamic that can propel the process forward," Annan said.

Labor said Tuesday it would back Sharon's plan, assuring him of a parliamentary majority even if two ultranationalist parties quit the government.

But one of the lawmakers who signed Wednesday's letter, Yuli Edelstein, claimed the group had enough support from other Likud members to block the dramatic move on settlements.

Even if the effort fails, the letter reflected the internal divisions that Sharon faces over his Gaza pullout plan.

Sharon on Tuesday shrugged off the growing threats, saying he was determined to go ahead with plans to remove 17 settlements in Gaza and three in the West Bank without waiting for a peace deal with the Palestinians. He said he would try to form a new governing coalition rather than back down.

The prime minister's surprise announcement Monday divided Israelis into two camps: Those who believe Sharon, for decades the main architect of Jewish settlement expansion, was truly changing course; and those who suspect him of trying to sow confusion and deflect attention from a widening corruption probe against him.

Sharon said Wednesday that his plan was not related to the corruption probe, Israel radio reported. Speaking to reporters at the Israeli parliament building, he said he was moving forward in spite of his legal troubles, not because of them. He also offered to take the plan to a national referendum.

Sharon, who has denied wrongdoing, is to be questioned by police Thursday on suspicion he accepted bribes from an Israeli real-estate developer.

Commentators said whatever Sharon's motives, his declaration has created irreversible facts, and no future prime minister could demand to hold on to parts of Gaza in a peace deal with the Palestinians. "The words that were uttered can never be taken back," commentator Dan Margalit wrote in the Maariv daily.

Opinion polls suggested that Sharon has broad public support for dismantling most Gaza settlements, increasingly seen by many Israelis as a security burden. Israel controls one-third of the strip, while 1.3 million Palestinians share the rest.

In his first public comment on the issue Tuesday, Sharon avoided mention of Gaza but said he was determined to press ahead with the removal of settlements.

"Not only is this difficult for the settlers, but also, it is more painful for myself than anyone else in Israel," Sharon said during a visit of the coastal city of Ashkelon. "But I've reached a decision and I am going to carry it out."

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told Palestinian radio he wants to see "deeds, not words. We want to see them leaving the whole Gaza Strip, leaving Gaza as liberated Palestinian land and leaving us to concentrate on their withdrawal from the West Bank."

In the West Bank on Wednesday, the army said it had arrested a senior operative in the militant Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the village of Tubas. Palestinian sources identified the man as Jihad Sawafta, who they said had escaped an Israeli assassination attempt in 2002.

Senior aides to Sharon and Qureia could not agree Wednesday on a date for the leaders' meeting. Sharon's office said another preparatory meeting would be held. A summit would be a crucial step in reviving the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.

The talks were to focus on Israel's contentious West Bank separation barrier -- which the Palestinians oppose -- and Palestinian efforts to persuade militant groups to halt attacks on Israelis, Palestinian officials said.

Efforts to bring the two men together have faltered since Qureia took office in October, and the road map has been stalled for months. But Qureia has come under pressure recently from the United States and Egypt, a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, to agree to a meeting. The road map aims for an independent Palestinian state, alongside Israel, by 2005.

"This is maybe their last opportunity to implement the road map," a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of a possible summit.