Power struggle as Sharon fights for disengagement plan

By DONALD MCINTYRE

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, yesterday fought to swing ministerial opponents behind his plan to disengage from Gaza in what is rapidly turning into a power struggle between himself and his main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Sharon was set to trigger a week of political uncertainty and infighting by indicating he would postpone a vote because he so far lacks a majority for the plan.

Although modified, his proposal to withdraw all 7,500 settlers from Gaza contained the basic elements rejected in a referendum among members of the ruling Likud party last month.

Facing a crisis for his authority, Mr Sharon projected himself as a statesman acting according to "a duty towards the entire [Israeli] public", who, polls show, want full withdrawal from Gaza.

In a thinly veiled sideswipe at the prime ministerial ambitions of Mr Netanyahu, the leading ministerial opponent of the plan, and his right-wing allies, Mr Sharon told the meeting, "I want to warn those members among us who want to exploit this hour of crisis for promoting some personal plan".

Mr Netanyahu, who arrived at yesterday's meeting as the leader of a 12-11 Cabinet majority against the plan, retorted that "nobody in this room has a monopoly over the good of the state. We all bear responsibility and care for the good of the state, in the same state."

Prominent opponents of the plan also include the Education Minister, Limor Livnat, the Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, and the Health Minister, Danny Naveh. The Finance Minister had been personally under strong US pressure to fall into line with the disengagement plan.

The Israeli government has been warned that President Bush would not take kindly to the plan being rejected when he had made a series of highly controversial concessions to Mr Sharon in April in the belief that it would secure approval for the plan.

Mr Bush was widely criticised in the Arab world for agreeing that some of the biggest Israeli West Bank settlements would remain in Israeli hands in any final peace deal.

Mr Sharon went on yesterday to threaten ministerial sackings with a warning that he was determined "to pass this plan, even if I am forced to change the make-up of the government or to take unprecedented political steps."

The warning was assumed by ministers present to apply to Avigdor Lieberman and Benny Elon, ministers in Mr Sharon's coalition who belong to the hard-right National Union.

The threat was taken as an indication that Mr Sharon was calculating that he can do without the National Union and his other right-wing coalition partner, the National Religious Party, and rely on Labour support in the Knesset to sustain him in office provided he sticks to his full plan for withdrawal from Gaza.

The robustness of Mr Sharon's determination to seek approval for the plan in its entirety was tested last night, however, when Tommy Lapid, the Justice Minister and leader of the centrist partner in the coalition, Shinui, offered to broker a compromise between the Prime Minister and Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Lapid suggested the Cabinet be asked initially to approve the withdrawal from only three of Gaza's 21 settlements while Mr Sharon would say he intended to seek subsequent approval in stages from all the settlements.

Mr Netanyahu had last week rejected another version of this proposal, under which the Cabinet would have explicitly approved only the three withdrawals, but would have "recognised" the proposal to withdraw from all the settlements.

It was after that that Mr Sharon determined to revert to the full plan.

Mr Netanyahu's aides were reportedly looking favourably on Mr Lapid's - on the face of it - even more diluted version of the original plan for complete disengagement.

- INDEPENDENT