Sharon shrugs off mutiny, rejects Gaza referendum

In a rebellion after Parliament passed the US-backed Gaza plan yesterday, Sharon’s Chief Likud rival Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three other ministers vowed to resign in two weeks if no referendum was set.

‘‘I will never give in to pressures and threats and not accept any ultimatums,’’ Sharon told Haaretz newspaper. ‘‘My position on the referendum is unchanged—I am opposed because it will lead to terrible tensions and a rupture in the public.’’

Sharon fears that a referendum could delay the start of the withdrawal of troops and settlers from Gaza and four of the 120 settlements in the West Bank, slated to begin after another cabinet vote next March.

But the loss of Netanyahu and the others could make it hard for Sharon to avoid a leadership challenge or new elections.

‘‘We still cannot rule a referendum out totally. This is politics,’’ said one Sharon confidant.

Most Israelis see the cost in blood and money as too high for keeping 8,000 Jews in fortified settlements alongside 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

But nationalist hardliners, who once saw Sharon as the settlers’ godfather, now revile him for being ready to give up land they see as a biblical heritage to Palestinians waging a 4-year-old uprising.

If Sharon does rule out a referendum, he could strengthen his shaky coalition by bringing in Centre-Left Opposition Labour, whose deputies all voted in support of Sharon despite his standing for decades as bogeyman of the Left.

Security around Sharon has been tightened amid an upsurge of fiery language last heard before Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an ultra-nationalist Jew in 1995 for signing accords with the Palestinians.

Palestinians welcome a withdrawal, but fear that the pullout from Gaza would be at the expense of a stronger Israeli hold on bigger West Bank settlements, effectively denying them the state they seek in both territories. Sharon’s plan is bolstered by assurances from US. —Reuters