Sharon Rejects Calls for Gaza Withdrawal Referendum

Jewish Fundamentalists mobs protested Sharon's correct decision by threatening to kill him as they killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin nine years ago. Sharon was filmed leaving a building to enter a car surrounded by 16 bodyguards, so the threat is being taken seriously.
---BBB

Sharon Rejects Calls for Gaza Referendum
By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to face down rebels in his Likud party, vowing in comments published Wednesday that he would not give in to "pressures and threats" over his Gaza withdrawal plan.

Four Cabinet ministers ?- led by Sharon's top rival, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ?- voted along with a majority of lawmakers who approved the Gaza plan on Tuesday. But the four said they would step down if the prime minister did not commit to a national referendum on it.

The turmoil raised new doubts about Sharon's ability to go ahead with the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank next summer, as pledged.

The ministers' resignations could force elections in coming months and delay implementation of a withdrawal. Alternately, Sharon could try to reshuffle his coalition and bring in the moderate Labor Party.

Sharon said he would not be swayed by the threats.

"I will never give in to pressures and threats, and I won't accept any ultimatums," he told the Haaretz daily newspaper in Wednesday's editions. "My position on the referendum is unchanged. I am opposed to it because it will lead to terrible tensions and a rift in the public."

Sharon suggested he would try to avoid early elections, telling the Yediot Ahronot daily: "I can promise you that I will have a coalition that will continue to run this country."

In Tuesday's historic vote, parliament for the first time approved the dismantling of Jewish settlements in lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war and which are claimed by the Palestinians for a state.

Sharon won by a comfortable 67-45 margin, with seven abstentions. However, nearly half the Likud legislators and two religious parties voted against him, underscoring Sharon's break with his former constituency.

After the vote, Sharon fired Uzi Landau, a Cabinet minister who voted against him.

Referendum proponents say a nationwide vote is needed to give the plan legitimacy, noting that Sharon rejected a similar proposal by his Labor Party opponent during the 2003 election campaign. Sharon announced the plan early this year.

"There is no real mandate for this plan," Landau said Wednesday.

The referendum initiative got a boost when the National Religious Party, a key coalition partner, said just before the vote that it would quit within two weeks unless parliament's vote was accompanied by a pledge to hold a referendum.

Four Likud ministers ?- Netanyahu, Limor Livnat, Yisrael Katz and Danny Naveh ?- voted for the plan and then immediately demanded Sharon accept the NRP ultimatum or they would resign.

Sharon probably would win a referendum since opinion polls show more than half of Israelis supporting the withdrawal. But Sharon and his supporters say there is no time ?- or need ?- to hold one.

"The Knesset is the representative of the people," said top Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin, referring to Israel's parliament. "The Knesset reflected what the general public believes."

The government hopes to complete the withdrawal next year but still must win several more parliamentary votes to implement stages of the pullout.

Sharon has said giving up Gaza and parts of the West Bank would boost Israel's security and help ensure the country's identity as a Jewish democracy. However, he intends to keep large West Bank settlement blocs and east Jerusalem, areas the Palestinians also seek for their state.

The Labor Party has said that even if it did not formally join Sharon's government, it would support his "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians without conditions.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli praised the vote as "an opportunity to advance the interests of both sides."

The Knesset voted on the anniversary of two events embodying the Jewish state's history of bloodshed and yearning: the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin nine years ago on the Jewish calendar and the Israel-Jordan peace treaty signed Oct. 26, 1994.

Notably absent from Israel's debate on the withdrawal plan are the Palestinians themselves, whom Israel accuses of being unreliable negotiating partners.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said Israel should not be making unilateral decisions about the Palestinians' future.

Meanwhile, one of Yasser Arafat's doctors said a blood test and the results of an endoscopy dispelled suspicions that Palestinian leader has cancer of his digestive tract.

The diagnosis came a day after a hospital official said Arafat was suffering from a large gallstone. The gallstone, while extremely painful, is not life-threatening and can be easily treated, the official said.

On Wednesday, Arafat continued resting, and he broke his Ramadan fast for a second straight day, aides said.

Arafat's health has been the subject of intense speculation. His aides have insisted the Palestinian leader is recovering from the flu and is not suffering from a serious illness. Israeli officials speculated he was suffering from stomach cancer.

Teams of Egyptian and Tunisian doctors have examined Arafat in recent days.

Meanwhile, Israeli police began investigating the killing of a Palestinian teenager by a Jewish settler at a West Bank outpost, casting doubt on initial reports the youth infiltrated the site. The 16-year-old boy was killed Tuesday by a settler at the Yitzhar South outpost near Nablus, where settlers have violently resisted attempts by the army to evacuate them.