Top legal official recommends indictment of Ariel Sharon

JERUSALEM -- Israel's state attorney recommended Sunday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon be indicted for taking bribes, officials said, in what is seen as a major -- but not final -- step toward his possible resignation.

Such an unprecedented indictment of an Israeli prime minister could derail Sharon's proposal to withdraw from much of the Gaza Strip -- or entice him to move more quickly on the "disengagement" plan, which has broad support in Israel.

Sharon is meeting with President Bush in two weeks to try to win U.S. backing for a Gaza withdrawal.

In the event of an indictment, there would be considerable pressure on Sharon to suspend himself or resign. The prime minister has been plagued by corruption allegations since he was elected in 2001.

A resignation could trigger early elections; but Sharon's most likely successor, former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, is not considered a supporter of Sharon's proposals to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank -- areas captured in the 1967 war.

Sunday's recommendation by State Attorney Edna Arbel to indict Sharon is not the last word on the matter. The final decision is up to Attorney General Meni Mazuz, who is expected to make a ruling within a month. However, Arbel's opinion carries considerable weight and puts pressure on Mazuz -- appointed by the government a few months ago -- to concur.

Police have been investigating Sharon on suspicion he accepted $690,000 in bribes from Israeli businessman David Appel to help promote a tourism project in Greece and rezone urban land in Tel Aviv. Sharon allegedly received bribes as foreign minister in 1999, and after he was elected prime minister.

Appel was indicted in January for allegedly bribing Sharon, but investigators still have to prove that Sharon knew he was being bribed. Sharon's son, Gilad, allegedly was paid large sums of money so that his father would use his influence to push the project forward. The Greek project failed, as did the one near Tel Aviv.

An official close to the investigation confirmed media reports Sunday that Arbel formally recommended that Sharon be indicted for bribe-taking. A source in the legal system, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Arbel attached draft indictments of Sharon and his son to her recommendation.

The Justice Ministry confirmed that Arbel made a formal recommendation Sunday, but would not say what it was.

Sharon critics have speculated the prime minister might forge ahead with the Gaza withdrawal now, in hopes this would deter Mazuz from handing down an indictment. According to that line of reasoning, the attorney general would not want to force the prime minister out of office at a time of a possible peace breakthrough.

However, Sharon has encountered fierce opposition to a Gaza pullback in his Cabinet -- where hardline ministers opposed to territorial concessions have considerable sway -- and has failed to win U.S. guarantees that would make the plan more palatable to such critics.

Sharon failed, among other things, to win U.S. support for Israeli annexation of large West Bank settlement blocs in exchange for a Gaza withdrawal. Top U.S. envoys are to return to the region this week for more talks on the plan.

In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers surrounded a house in the city of Nablus, setting off a gunfight. A Palestinian was wounded. The Israelis arrested two suspects, the military said.

In Gaza City, meanwhile, the new Hamas chief, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, sharply attacked the United States for its veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Yassin assassination.

Rantisi told a rally of thousands of Hamas supporters that the veto did not come as a surprise. "We knew that Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and Muslims. America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon," Rantisi told the crowd.

"The war of God continues against them, and I can see the victory coming up from the land of Palestine by the hand of Hamas," he added.

Rantisi said Hamas would avenge Yassin's death by attacking Israel, but stopped short of saying the group would also go after U.S. targets.

Last week, immediately after the killing of Yassin, the Hamas military wing made veiled threats against the United States, but leaders of the Islamic militant groups later backed off. Rantisi himself said last week that Hamas' conflict is with Israel and that the group has no intention of opening a new front abroad.