Israeli Party’s Support Clears Gaza Exit Path

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appeared to have surmounted the last major legislative hurdle to his Gaza Strip withdrawal plan Saturday when a key opposition party announced it would vote in favor of his proposed national budget in parliament this week.

Tommy Lapid, leader of the centrist Shinui Party, announced his support of the budget after a meeting with Sharon on Saturday night.

The statement by Shinui, which holds 14 seats in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, ends a weeks-long political drama in which Sharon scrambled to assemble a legislative plurality for his spending plan.

Under Israeli law, the failure to pass a 2005 budget by Thursday would have automatically dissolved the parliament and forced early elections. That would have probably delayed, or even scuttled, Sharon’s “disengagement” plan.

Shinui had threatened to vote against the budget, though it strongly backed the policy of withdrawing Israeli troops and settlers from the Palestinian territory. The party’s support ensures that Sharon can win passage of the spending plan without the help of leftist and Arab lawmakers who favor the withdrawal but oppose the budget on fiscal grounds.

“The last parliamentary hurdle to the disengagement had been removed,” Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin said. “Now it’s a clear road to the disengagement.”

Gissin said Sharon had promised Lapid that the budget would allocate about $160 million more for education and other causes favored by Shinui.

The budget is to be debated in the Knesset this week, with a vote planned for Tuesday or Wednesday. Until Shinui’s announcement Saturday, Sharon remained a few votes shy of the plurality needed for approval in the 120-seat Knesset.

Although most analysts had predicted that Sharon would find the votes, the leader’s aides warned in recent days that the outcome was far from certain, suggesting that he might be forced to call early elections.

By law, national elections would have to be held within 90 days, a period that would end just weeks before the evacuation is scheduled to begin July 20.

The pullout plan calls for the evacuation of Jewish residents and soldiers from all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern West Bank.

The budget vote offered opponents of the plan, including some members of Sharon’s conservative Likud Party, their best remaining chance to stymie the withdrawal, which many view as a forcible expulsion of Jews from land they consider their biblical birthright.

This week, the Knesset is also scheduled to vote on a measure calling for a national referendum on the withdrawal, but supporters appear to be well short of the votes needed to pass it.