Sharon sacks two cabinet foes to pass Gaza plan

7.30pm

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sacked two hardline opponents of his Gaza pullout plan from his cabinet on Friday, giving him a slim majority to pass the proposal, political sources said.

The cabinet shake-up, following a breakdown in talks on a possible compromise, added a new twist to a political crisis that threatens to bring down Sharon's government, raising the prospect of snap elections within months.

Sharon summoned ministers from the National Union party, a far-right coalition partner, to his office to fire them, but when they failed to show up he sent messengers to deliver dismissal letters, the sources said.

The move should secure a victory for Sharon in a cabinet vote on Sunday on his US-backed plan to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians by evacuating 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank by the end of 2005.

Sharon's decision came after he failed to reach a face-saving deal with Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other rebellious members of their rightist Likud party who oppose ceding land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Polls show most Israelis support a withdrawal from Gaza's hard-to-defend settlements, where 7,500 settlers live cloistered from 1.3 million Palestinians. But Sharon's Likud rejected his plan in a May 2 referendum as rewarding "Palestinian terror".

A source close to Sharon, a former general with a taste for political brinkmanship, said there was still a chance of a last-minute resolution of differences before Sunday's vote. The dismissals would not officially take effect for 48 hours.

But there were no signs of fresh negotiations.

"I didn't ignore the attempts to reach a compromise but there were some things I couldn't give in to and I didn't," Sharon told the Haaretz daily. "I need a majority on Sunday."

Tourism Minister Benny Elon, a staunch opponent of the plan and one of those fired, accused Sharon of trying "to create an artificial majority". Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman was also sacked. Their aides called the move "anti-democratic".

Before firing the two ministers, Sharon had 11 cabinet members supporting his four-stage plan and 12 opposing it. The dismissals of two "no" votes should guarantee him a one-vote victory in the coming cabinet session.

With National Union's departure, the fate of Sharon's government will rest on a second small ultra-nationalist coalition partner, the pro-settler National Religious Party, which has threatened to bolt if the Gaza plan is passed.

That could leave Sharon shy of a parliamentary majority and force him to reshape his government, opening the possibility of a "national unity" partnership with the centre-left Labour Party or a call for early elections. A Sharon confidant said the premier hoped to avoid a national ballot.

Talks over a compromise bogged down late on Thursday over hardliners' demands for settlements in Gaza to continue to receive state funding for construction even after the disengagement plan is approved, political sources said.

Sharon and dissident ministers had been working toward a deal that called for the cabinet to approve his plan "in principle" while agreeing to hold off on any settlement evacuation until a second vote in six months.

The United States has pressed for Sharon's full plan to be implemented instead of a watered-down version backed by some opponents.

Sharon has vowed to bring his plan to a vote no matter what happens. He called off a vote last Sunday when his defeat appeared inevitable.

Palestinians would welcome withdrawal from any of the land they seek for a state, but they suspect Sharon's unilateral plan is just a ruse to strengthen Israel's hold on chunks of the West Bank where the bulk of Jewish settlements have been built.

- REUTERS