Sharon Defends Ejecting Settlements

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took to the road Tuesday to defend his controversial proposal to uproot nearly all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, calling the idea “painful” but vital to Israel’s long-term interests.

Although the outlines of the preliminary plan drew furious protests from settlers and Sharon’s right-wing allies -- as well as widespread skepticism from the Israeli left -- much of the Israeli public appeared sanguine about the prospect of pulling up stakes in Gaza.

A public opinion survey published Tuesday, one day after news of the proposal became public, indicated that most Israelis were prepared to relinquish the seaside enclave, where an estimated 7,500 Jewish settlers live among more than 1.2 million Palestinians.

In the survey, conducted by the respected Dahaf Institute for the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, 59% of respondents supported dismantling the Gaza settlements, while 34% opposed it. The rest were undecided.

Israelis in general do not regard Gaza, which was seized from Egypt in the 1967 Middle East War, as a biblical birthright of the Jewish people. Although many Israelis have a strong emotional attachment to the West Bank, which was also seized in the war and has an abundance of holy sites that are inextricably bound up with Jewish history, there is little such feeling for Gaza.

On Monday, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat scornfully dismissed Sharon’s proposal, but Prime Minister Ahmed Korei weighed in favorably Tuesday.

“Of course it is good news for us,” said Korei, speaking on Voice of Palestine radio. “It is our hope that Israel will withdraw from all Palestinian areas.”

The militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for their part, gloated over what they called evidence of Israeli capitulation -- striking a raw nerve with some Israelis who are still unhappy about a lopsided prisoner swap last week with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

In an example of the odd alliances generated by various recent proposals, veteran Israeli leftist politician Yossi Beilin warned against unilateral pullouts from Palestinian territory -- although he is a longtime proponent of getting out of Gaza.

“I believe the same way Sharon rewarded Hezbollah last week, he is rewarding Hamas today with the things he is saying, even if they never materialize,” said Beilin, an author of the unofficial peace blueprint known as the Geneva Accord, which calls for territorial withdrawals within the context of an overall peace settlement. “I believe this will cause true damage to Israel.”

Angry objections from Sharon’s right-wing coalition partners were more predictable, although it was clear they were coolly weighing how to most effectively protest.

“The question of when we’ll quit [the governing coalition] is tactical,” said Effi Eitam of the National Religious Party, a partner in Sharon’s government and the one most closely associated with the settler movement. But he added: “A public, international commitment of this sort means this is the beginning of the end of this government.”

Finding new coalition partners, however, would probably not be hard for Sharon if he actually moves ahead with plans to relinquish settlements.

Labor Party leader Shimon Peres said that if Sharon was serious about the measures he has floated in recent months, Labor would be a willing partner.

The prime minister’s declarations “have a cumulative weight,” Peres told a convention of his party, now in the opposition. “This is already a path from which there is no turning back.”

Sharon himself mounted a forceful defense of the Gaza proposal, even as aides continued to caution that it was only one of several courses of action under consideration should peace efforts with the Palestinians fail.

Sharon visited Ashkelon, the closest large Israeli city to Gaza, to drive home the point that it was not a decision made lightly.

“We need to take steps which are definitely painful -- and let me tell you that, except for the settlers, this thing is more personally painful to me than to anybody else in Israel,” said Sharon, who in decades past was the prime architect of the settlement movement. “This is hard, but I believe this is what Israel needs today in preparation for the years to come.”

Exactly how many settlers are in Gaza is a matter of dispute. The settler umbrella organization Yesha says 7,500 people live in the Gaza settlements, but Israeli human rights groups contend the figures have been inflated for political reasons. Sharon’s plan calls for uprooting 17 of Gaza’s 21 settlements.

Israeli news reports said Sharon would unveil details of the plan during a visit to Washington, which Sharon’s office has said is expected this month.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Sharon’s aides offered a proposal that triggered alarm among Israel’s Arab citizens: Israel might be willing to trade some territory inhabited by Israeli Arabs to Palestinians so that Israel could maintain sovereignty over some West Bank Jewish settlements.