- JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to remain in office and refrained from
declaring his proposed Gaza pullback dead despite his right-wing Likud
party's stinging rejection of the U.S.-endorsed plan.
-
- "I intend to continue to lead the state of Israel
the best way I know how, in accordance with my conscience and public duty.
It is not an easy task -- but I intend to carry it out," Sharon said
on Sunday, acknowledging defeat in the referendum.
-
- "One thing is clear to me -- the Israeli people
did not elect me to sit on my hands for four years."
-
- But political analysts said Sharon, dealt his strongest
setback since taking office in 2001, was certain to be weakened after failing
to quell a revolt by hardline Likud members unwilling to give up land captured
in the 1967 Middle East war.
-
- Partial official results reflected what Israeli television
radio and television polls showed was a 60 percent 'no' vote on the plan
to uproot all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of the 120
in the West Bank.
-
- Political analysts said opposition to the plan may have
been boosted by Likud rank-and-file outrage over an ambush just hours earlier
in which Palestinian gunmen killed a pregnant Jewish settler and her four
daughters in the Gaza Strip.
-
- Israel struck back swiftly, launching an air strike on
a Hamas target in Gaza City. Helicopter-launched missiles killed four militants
in the West Bank city of Nablus.
-
- In his statement, Sharon voiced regret that his own party
had turned against his pullout plan and said he "respected" the
result. But he also pointed to what he said was heavy support for the proposal
among the Israeli public at large.
-
- Vice Premier Ehud Olmert told reporters the prime minister
had no intention of abandoning the "disengagement" blueprint
which Sharon has said would boost security for Israelis after more than
three years of violence with the Palestinians.
-
- CONSULT ON NEXT MOVE
-
- "In the coming days, I will hold consultations with
cabinet ministers, the Likud faction and coalition factions and I will
examine carefully the ramifications (of the vote) and the steps we intend
to take," Sharon said in the statement.
-
- But commentator Aluf Benn, writing in the Haaretz daily
on Monday, said Sharon -- whom he described as having viewed his now-victorious
Likud opponents as "a band of dwarfs" -- would find it hard to
breathe new life into the pullout plan. "(Sharon) will have difficulty
getting a majority to vote in favor inside the cabinet, and he is likely
to meet opposition even if he turns to a "bypass the party" general
referendum," Benn wrote.
-
- Sharon's unilateral approach also calls for holding on
to larger West Bank settlement blocs containing the majority of Jews on
territory Israel has occupied for the past 37 years.
-
- There was no immediate White House comment on Likud's
rejection of a plan that President Bush backed at an April 14 news conference
with Sharon.
-
- Bush drew Arab outrage by coupling his endorsement with
a statement that Israel could not be expected to give up all occupied land
or accept any return of Palestinian refugees to what is now the Jewish
state.
-
- Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat called on Bush
to cancel those guarantees following the Likud vote.
-
- The Palestinian Authority rejected the legitimacy of
the referendum, saying the Likud had no right to decide on Palestinians'
fate.
-
- Gaza settlers who campaigned intensively to defeat Sharon's
plan thumped tables with joy when they heard the exit polls, but their
happiness was tempered by mourning for the settler family.
-
- The settlers have called a pullout a "reward for
terror." But the attack was also likely to reinforce the view of many
Israelis that the price of keeping 7,500 settlers in vulnerable enclaves
among 1.3 million Palestinians is too high.
-
- Some of Sharon's critics suggest the prime minister,
once considered the godfather of settlement building, proposed the plan
in part to deflect attention from corruption scandals swirling around him.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
-
- - Additional reporting by Corinne Heller, Matt Spetalnick,
Wafa Amr, Cynthia Johnston, Megan Goldin, Mohammed Assadi and Shahdi al-Kashif
-
- Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
-
- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5010000
|
