Sharon may escape bribery scandal charges

By DON MACINTYRE in Jerusalem

An interim legal report has found that prosecutors lack enough evidence to charge Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a bribery scandal, Israeli television said.

Channel Two television quoted the report from a panel appointed by Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz to investigate whether to press charges that could topple the Israeli leader.

The so-called "Greek Island Affair" centres on bribery charges brought against an Israeli businessman.

Prosecutors said he hired Sharon's son, Gilad, in 1999 and paid him large sums to persuade his father, then foreign minister, to promote real estate deals, including a Greek island resort. Nothing came of the business plan.

Sharon and his son have denied any wrongdoing. Last night the justice ministry refused to be drawn on the matter.

Nevertheless, the Channel Two report will come as a much-needed filip for Sharon as he struugles to convince leading members his own Likud party to back his proposal on withdrawal from the Gaza strip.

Sharon personally called a string of Likud officials yesterday and told them he considered an upcoming party referendum on his plan a personal vote of confidence.

Opponents have campaigned for weeks throughout the country, but Sharon has only recently countered them with a last-minute push, as polls showed the race tightening ahead of the Sunday vote.

Under the proposal, Israel would pull all its settlements and military installations out from the Gaza Strip and remove four Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Sharon won US backing for the plan in a visit to Washington earlier this month, but many in his traditionally pro-settler party remain wary of pulling down Jewish settlements.

Sharon had originally promised to honour the referendum, but backed down last week, with advisers saying he will present his plan to the Cabinet and parliament regardless of the referendum results.

In a new tactic only four days before the vote, Sharon called members of the Likud central committee Wednesday and said he viewed the referendum as a vote of confidence in him, said his political spokesman, Lior Chorev.

"Sharon thinks that since this is his plan, supporting it is support for him," Chorev said.

Sharon is also considering announcing he will resign if the plan does not pass in an effort to put pressure on hawkish Likud members to vote for it, Israeli newspapers reported Wednesday.

Sharon was bolstered by US President George W. Bush's announcement two weeks ago that he supported the plan and also backed Sharon's position that Israel should not have to give the Palestinians all of the West Bank or let Palestinian refugees return to Israel in a peace deal.

Sharon's plan also gained the tepid support of three top Likud Cabinet ministers last week, but their refusal to actively campaign on its behalf could further dim its chances.

A poll of 620 party faithful published last week showed 49 per cent of the roughly 200,000 Likud members in favour of the plan, with 39.5 per cent against. Eleven per cent of respondents said they had changed their position recently, with just 2 per cent switching in favour of the plan. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Adding to the opponents' momentum, an estimated 60,000 people demonstrated against the withdrawals at a bloc of Jewish settlements in Gaza on Tuesday.

- INDEPENDENT