Time to be realistic about land, Sharon tells Israelis

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in comments published yesterday that "the time has come" to reach a land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians.

Sharon's remarks, published in Yedioth Ahronoth, came as his Cabinet readied for a vote possibly overnight on the United States-backed "road map" peace plan that the Israeli leader accepted late last week.

"The time has come to divide this piece of land between us and the Palestinians," Sharon said in his first publicly published comments admitting a readiness to cede land.

"No one is going to teach me about the strips of land that we will be asked to leave, I am no less connected to them from those who are speaking from up high," said Sharon, a long-time leading advocate of the Jewish settlement lobby.

"But you have to be realistic about what we can and cannot continue to hold."

Political sources have predicted that Sharon would succeed in pushing the road map through his 23-member cabinet, despite opposition from far-right ministers to an envisaged Palestinian state.

A senior member of his Likud party called the plan the "most dangerous" in the history of Middle East peacemaking, but Sharon warned some ministers that rejection could trigger a crisis with Israel's main ally, Washington.

Despite the hopes of ending 32 months of bloodshed, Israeli forces raided Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank to search for militants after suicide bombings killed 10 people in Israel during the past week.

Soldiers in the Gaza Strip shot dead a Palestinian gunman and an unarmed man in two separate incidents.

Both men approached an Israeli border fence, military sources said.

Plan for peace

* The road map sets out steps leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.

* It includes a freeze on Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

* In the final stage, Israel will be asked to dismantle some of its 145 settlements on lands the Palestinians seek for their state.

* Sharon accepted the peace plan after Washington said it would address Israeli reservations.

* The Palestinians have accepted the plan.

- REUTERS