- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon struggled Tuesday to keep a lid on increasingly
vocal dissent in the military's top ranks over his evolving plan to uproot
Gaza settlements, political sources said.
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- Sharon planned to summon army chief Lieutenant-General
Moshe Yaalon in coming days to explain his reported criticism of the prime
minister's unilateral "disengagement" strategy toward the Palestinians,
the sources said.
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- The rare public rift signaled growing divisions at the
top over Sharon's plan to remove Jewish settlements and possibly withdraw
troops from the Gaza Strip if a U.S.-backed peace "road map"
remains stalled.
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- The right-wing leader was expected to lobby for diplomatic
support for his controversial initiative in talks this week with visiting
U.S. envoys and at a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah that Sharon said
would likely be held in a few days.
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- An official in King Abdullah's office in Amman said he
was unaware any talks had been scheduled.
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- Palestinians fear that by pursuing disengagement Israel
is seeking to trade Gaza for permanent control over large swathes of the
West Bank with its larger settlements, effectively depriving them of land
they want for their own state.
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- Sharon's office denied a television report he was enraged
at Yaalon and would reprimand him for airing disagreement over the Gaza
plan. But a source close to Sharon said he wanted to put a stop to the
military's public expressions of dissent.
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- "Sharon thinks Israel has to stop speaking with
so many voices," the source said.
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- WITHDRAWAL MAY FUEL MORE ATTACKS
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- Yaalon, who has been at odds with Sharon before, was
quoted in news reports as predicting a unilateral withdrawal would fuel
more Palestinian militant attacks.
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- "It will take more than a division (of soldiers)
to repair the damage created by withdrawing from one settlement under fire,"
he was quoted saying after a weekend marked by a botched suicide bombing
and an army raid in which 20 Palestinians died.
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- Army commanders fear a Gaza pullout with nothing in return
will give the impression that militants are driving them out.
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- The commander of Hamas's armed wing, Mohammad Deif, said
on Tuesday an evacuation of settlers from Gaza would signal a victory for
militants. Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, is the main group behind
a campaign of suicide bombings.
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- "The criminal Sharon was elected to smash our resistance
in 100 days. But now the man who once said Netzarim (isolated settlement
in Gaza) was just like Tel Aviv is planning to withdraw from Gaza without
something in return," he said in a rare voice interview on Hamas's
Web site.
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- Seeking to defuse the row with Sharon, Yaalon telephoned
the prime minister Monday, political sources said.
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- "The prime minister knows my opinion. They are voiced
in closed meetings," Yaalon told Israel Radio. "I heard about
this through the media and I know of no crisis."
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- Despite that, Sharon fears the army's objections will
be used by his pro-settler coalition partners to undermine his plan as
he prepares to present it to President Bush, political sources said. Settlers
accuse Sharon, once considered the godfather of the settlement movement,
of betraying them.
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- A senior envoy from Egypt, which tried in vain to broker
a truce, will meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Wednesday for
talks on issues arising from Sharon's Gaza plan.
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- In violence Tuesday, soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian
woman and wounded two people, including a news photographer, during a raid
in the West Bank city of Jenin, witnesses said.
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- Israeli military sources said soldiers had exchanged
fire with gunmen during an operation in which they arrested three wanted
militants, including a senior Islamic Jihad member.
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