Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, taking his biggest political gamble since becoming Israel’s leader, presented his Gaza pullout plan to a divided cabinet on Sunday but avoided a showdown that could shatter his government.
After threatening at a seven-hour cabinet session to dismiss rebellious ministers opposed to the plan endorsed by Washington but rejected by his own Likud party, Sharon adjourned the meeting until next week without taking any action or vote.
Justice Minister Yosef Lapid of the centrist Shinui party presented a compromise proposal aimed at settling differences between Sharon and his strongest political rival, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes the plan.
Sharon had intended to ask the cabinet to approve the evacuation of all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of the 120 in the West Bank, but Israeli media reports said he lacked a majority.
Lapid told Israel Radio that under his compromise formula, the cabinet would vote on the removal—in principle—of only three Gaza settlements and “note” Sharon’s original plan.
Netanyahu, the source said, appeared open to the compromise raised by Lapid, but Sharon’s position was not immediately clear.
“I think that the gaps are neither very wide nor substantial,” Lapid said. “I dont see why we cannot bridge the differences, even if there are personal rivalries.”
Sharon says there is no more strategic or economic value in preserving the 21 tiny Gaza enclaves with 7,500 settlers ringed by 1.3 million Palestinians and prone to constant militant attacks.
Sharon’s plan is backed both by most Israelis in opinion polls and by the United States, but it was rejected in a May 2 Likud referendum. Critics of a unilateral withdrawal say scrapping settlements would only embolden Palestinian militants.
“The plan will enable us to preserve national and security interests and extract Israel from the dangerous diplomatic deadlock,” Sharon said at the meeting.
Cabinet is closely divided on Sharon proposal
Israeli media said 11 ministers—six from Likud and five from Shinui—were in favour of the plan and 12 -- eight from Likud, two from the National Religious Party and two from the ultra-rightist National Union—were opposed.
“He (Sharon) is looking into the possibility of sacking two ministers from the National Union and even ministers from Likud, including Netanyahu,” said a political source close to Sharon before the proposed compromise was tabled.
But Lapid’s compromise could keep the National Religious Party in the coalition for the time being, political sources said, although the National Union would almost certainly bolt.
That would likely give Sharon enough votes in the cabinet to push the plan through and retain a majority in parliament, where he now controls 68 of its 120-seats.
A defeat in a cabinet vote could lead Sharon to reshape his government—opening the possibility of a partnership with the centre-left Labour Party that would pave the way for territorial withdrawals.
The Palestinians have welcomed the prospect of Israeli withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 Middle East but have called for talks to coordinate any pullout.
