Later yesterday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel defended his plan to unilaterally withdraw from most or all of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. A day earlier, he agreed to a binding referendum among his rebellious Likud party members on the "disengagement" plan.
Sharon said Israel must draw its own security line, which would mean "withdrawal from areas which it is understood will not be under Israeli control in any permanent agreement to be signed in the future, which cause great friction between Israelis and Palestinians -- the Gaza Strip, for example."
A poll published yesterday in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper indicated that 51 percent of Likud members support the plan, while 36 percent oppose it. The Dahaf Institute poll questioned 507 Likud members and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
Sharon blamed the Palestinians for not acting to stop violence. An Israeli pullout from Gaza would remove their main "excuse," he said, and then, "we need to tell them, please gentlemen, when there is no Israeli presence, let's see you start to act."
Ahmed Qurei, the Palestinian prime minister, cautiously welcomed the Gaza plan, but only as a first step.
"In principle, we welcome the Israeli withdrawal from our Palestinian land," Qurei told Palestinian lawmakers. "But for any withdrawal to have meaning for us . . . it should be followed by a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, too."
Palestinians want a state in all the West Bank and Gaza. But many in Sharon's hard-line government view his limited withdrawal plan as the most they are willing to concede.
Qurei also condemned Palestinian suicide attacks, which have killed more than 450 Israelis in the past 3 1/2 years of violence, saying they have damaged the Palestinian economy, given Israel cover to continue building settlements and a contentious West Bank barrier, and were morally wrong.
"Such attacks were used as excuses to continue the comprehensive aggression and impose collective punishments, including . . . the road blocks and incursions, which cause daily harm to the dignity of hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinian citizens," he said.
