U.S. Team to Study Israeli Pullout Plan

The United States will send a high-level team to Jerusalem next week to learn more about Israel’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, a mission that could result in a U.S. decision to endorse the pullout, administration officials said Friday.

Israel has said it may unilaterally remove 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. While Washington has advocated removing Jewish settlements from Palestinian areas, President Bush’s “road map” peace plan calls for negotiations leading to a Palestinian state. Gridlock between the Israelis and Palestinians has prevented some U.S. officials from rejecting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s proposal outright.

There are also concerns that an Israeli military pullout from the Gaza Strip could result in a security vacuum that would lead to a takeover by the militant group Hamas.

Nevertheless, U.S. officials Friday took a somewhat positive view of Sharon’s disengagement plan, saying that if a reduced Israeli presence meant fewer hardships for Palestinians, it could improve the climate for renewed negotiations.

An Israeli pullback “could reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians, improve Palestinian freedom of movement and address some of Israel’s responsibilities in moving ahead,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.

McClellan also repeated the long-standing White House view that a final settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians “must be achieved through negotiations, and neither side should impose final conditions on the other.”

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the makeup and mission of the U.S. team were not yet final.

Officials said the team was likely to include Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security advisor; Elliott Abrams, the National Security Council’s Middle East affairs director; and William Burns, head of the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau.

The U.S. side is expected to reiterate objections to the proposed route of a massive barrier Israel is building in the West Bank and will try to learn more about the political and humanitarian implications of Israel’s disengagement plan.

Under Sharon’s proposal, Israel would separate itself from the Palestinians -- pulling out of isolated settlements and massing forces along a makeshift border -- if it determines there is no hope for fruitful negotiations with the Palestinians under the U.S.-backed road map.

Palestinians are opposed to Sharon’s plan, which effectively draws a border to Israel’s specifications. They fear that an Israeli-imposed frontier would grab large chunks of land that the Palestinians claim for their future state.

Israeli officials said they looked forward to explaining the plan to the U.S. envoys.

“We share a common interest in trying to find the best ways to make progress here in the region -- preferably with the road map,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said. “If it turns out, as we fear, that we have no partner in advancing the road map, we’ll have to come up with other, interim initiatives.”

In suggesting a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Sharon has cited the costs to the Israeli military of defending the Jewish settlements, which are home to about 7,500 Israelis.

The idea has caused near revolt among hard-liners in Sharon’s rightist Likud Party but enjoys considerable popular support among Israelis weary of the 3 1/2-year-long Palestinian uprising.

The newspaper Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s widest-circulating daily, reported Friday that an unscientific survey of its readers showed overwhelming support for evacuating the Gaza Strip settlements.

The paper said that 77% of respondents were in favor and 23% opposed. Readers registered their votes at shopping center polling stations or using cut-out ballots from the newspaper.

The costs of keeping a presence in Gaza were highlighted Wednesday when an Israeli army incursion on the outskirts of Gaza City erupted into a prolonged firefight with gunmen that left 12 Palestinians dead.

A separate Israeli operation the same day in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, killed three other Palestinians.

In response to the Israeli actions, Hamas issued a broad call among followers for retaliation, and security remained tight around Israel through Friday.

In Jerusalem, Israeli police barred Muslim men younger than 45 from entering the Al Aqsa Mosque in the walled Old City for Friday prayers. The mosque sits on a contested hilltop holy site that is known to Israelis as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Authorities were concerned about possible disturbances. The site has been a focus of confrontations in the past.

In other developments, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian militia affiliated with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, announced that it had killed a Bethlehem man suspected of collaborating with Israeli authorities to identify suspected militants.

The army carried out raids in Bethlehem two weeks ago -- making a number of arrests of suspected militants -- after a suicide bombing attack on a Jerusalem bus that killed 10 passengers. The bomber was from Bethlehem.

Near Jenin, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian farmer Friday during a search for militants, according to Israeli news reports.

Efron reported from Washington and Ellingwood from Jerusalem. Staff writer Edwin Chen in Washington also contributed to this report.