Sharon savours victory for Gaza pullout, coalition split

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was savouring a dramatic victory for his Gaza pullout plan yesterday after MPs gave the green light to the first ever evacuation of occupied Palestinian territory.

Deputies voted 67 to 45 in favour of the so-called disengagement plan amid chaotic scenes in parliament, but the project continues to bitterly divide the government which remains in danger of collapsing. While the 22-vote majority was larger than many predicted, the embattled premier is still not out of the woods with four members of his cabinet – including his arch rival Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – threatening to resign unless he yields to their demands for a referendum on the project.The small right-wing National Religious Party also threatened to bolt the coalition if Sharon failed to put the issue to a plebiscite within a fortnight but the premier, having won the day in parliament, was in no mood for compromise.”I will never give into pressures and threats and I won’t accept any ultimatums,” he told the Ha’aretz daily.”My position on the referendum is unchanged, I am opposed because it will lead to terrible tensions and a rupture in the public.”Sharon was due to attend a memorial later in the day for the late Labour prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated nine years ago by a right-wing extremist over his stewardship of the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians.Not even the left-leaning Rabin, who once wished that Gaza “would just sink into the sea”, was able to withdraw Israeli troops or settlers from Palestinian territory.Tuesday night’s vote should now mean that all 8 000 Jewish settlers will be uprooted from the impoverished strip of land, home to 1.3 million Palestinians and under occupation since 1967, by next September.- Nampa-AFPWhile the 22-vote majority was larger than many predicted, the embattled premier is still not out of the woods with four members of his cabinet – including his arch rival Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – threatening to resign unless he yields to their demands for a referendum on the project.The small right-wing National Religious Party also threatened to bolt the coalition if Sharon failed to put the issue to a plebiscite within a fortnight but the premier, having won the day in parliament, was in no mood for compromise.”I will never give into pressures and threats and I won’t accept any ultimatums,” he told the Ha’aretz daily.”My position on the referendum is unchanged, I am opposed because it will lead to terrible tensions and a rupture in the public.”Sharon was due to attend a memorial later in the day for the late Labour prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated nine years ago by a right-wing extremist over his stewardship of the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians.Not even the left-leaning Rabin, who once wished that Gaza “would just sink into the sea”, was able to withdraw Israeli troops or settlers from Palestinian territory.Tuesday night’s vote should now mean that all 8 000 Jewish settlers will be uprooted from the impoverished strip of land, home to 1.3 million Palestinians and under occupation since 1967, by next September.- Nampa-AFP