Sharon gives Gaza plan warning

JERUSALEM - Scrambling to avert an embarrassing defeat, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has warned his divided Likud it would undermine him and wreck the party if it rejects his Gaza pullout plan.

Sharon raised the political stakes, depicting Sunday's Likud poll on his "disengagement" plan as a vote of confidence in his leadership of the right-wing party, as opinion surveys for the first time showed him losing the crucial ballot.

He predicted victory, but also warned hardline party members, many of whom oppose the proposed Gaza withdrawal, that a defeat could topple the Likud-led government.

"You cannot be for me but against the plan I am spearheading. Whoever believes in me must vote for the disengagement plan," he told Israel's Army Radio on Thursday.

"Otherwise it will be a victory for (Palestinian President Yasser) Arafat and (the militant group) Hamas and will ultimately bring about Likud's downfall," he added.

Trying to counter intense lobbying against the plan by Jewish settlers and their supporters, the right-wing premier also warned of possible damage to Israel's vital ties to the United States, which has endorsed his plan for a unilateral Gaza pullout.

"I don't want to think what, heaven forbid, would happen...to the economy, the markets," he told Israel Radio in remarks directed at 193,000 "Likudniks" who will vote on whether to uproot all Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank.

Sharon says a Gaza pullout will improve Israel's security after three and a half years of fighting with Palestinians.

But many in the traditionally pro-settler Likud oppose ceding any land captured in the 1967 Middle East war and have branded the proposed pullout a "reward for terror".

Palestinians say Sharon's strategy is to cement Israel's hold on large swathes of West Bank land they want for a state.

Sharon dodged questions of whether he would resign if the Gaza plan failed to pass, but Israel Radio suggested he might use such a threat as a "doomsday weapon" to sway Sunday's vote.

Defeat in his own party would be a major blow. But he has already signalled he will present the plan to his cabinet and parliament - where his chances of success are higher - even if he loses. Polls show a solid majority of Israelis in favour of parting with Gaza's hard-to-defend settlements.

Sharon's camp had seen victory as a foregone conclusion after US President George W. Bush endorsed the plan, giving unprecedented assurances Israel could retain some large West Bank settlements and bar the return of Palestinian refugees.

But an Israel Radio poll on Thursday showed 51 per cent of the Likud against a pullout and 39 per cent in favour, Sharon's worst showing since introducing the initiative. Two newspaper surveys also had opponents ahead but by a narrower margin.

"We're going to win," Gaza settler spokesman Eran Sternberg said. "Sharon is just trying to frighten Likud members."

Accusing Sharon of using the "law of the jungle", Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, an aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said: "A party cannot decide whether to occupy another people."

Sharon's supporters fear his plan could be in jeopardy if militants behind suicide bombings increase attacks in response to Israel's recent assassination of two Hamas leaders in Gaza.

- REUTERS