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Sharon seeks to bolster Israel's West Bank stake Confirms Gaza withdrawal part of wider plan; Palestinians accuse PM of acting in bad faith Toronto Star MITCH POTTER MIDDLE EAST BUREAU JERUSALEM—Prime Minister Ariel Sharon flashed his political agenda to an angry domestic audience yesterday, reassuring Israelis that his plan to leave the Gaza Strip is part of a larger scheme to stake a permanent claim over large sections of the West Bank. The Israeli leader, under intense pressure from Israeli critics to articulate his reasons for this summer's planned evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza, broke silence in a series of seven local media interviews prior to the Passover holiday. "I want to save as much of the settlement enterprise as I can," Sharon told the mass circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth, promising that the uprooting of the estimated 8,500 Jewish settlers from Gaza will give him the political leverage to entrench Israel's hold on the large settlement blocs in the West Bank, where the vast majority of the 240,000 Jewish settlers live on lands captured during the 1967 Six Day War. Sharon, long considered the father of Israel's settlement project, lamented to The Jerusalem Post that the runaway Palestinian birthrate and international pressure for withdrawal means that today only "part of the settlement dream" can realistically be achieved. "I don't see, looking at the long-term picture, any possibility of a community of a few thousand Jews, for all its achievements and its special heroism, remaining in Gaza," Sharon told the Post. But in taking the initiative to withdraw from Gaza, he said, Israel will reap a dividend of international goodwill that will help it retain the largest settlement blocs in the West Bank, including Ma'ale Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel. "Without that readiness, we would be facing very heavy pressure. We have no (such) pressures today," Sharon said. Palestinian officials condemned Sharon's remarks as evidence of bad faith, and urged the international community to hold Israel to its commitments under the U.S.-backed road map peace plan. "I think Mr. Sharon wants only to make peace with himself and Israel, not with us. Who is he trying to make peace with?" Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters. "This will only complicate matters. This is why we are urging the U.S. administration to stop Israeli settlement activities ... We need the help of President (George W.) Bush." Israeli officials last night indicated Sharon is likely to announce a postponement of the Gaza withdrawal from July 20 to Aug. 15 in order to minimize clashes with religious settlers during the three-week period of Jewish mourning that ends with the Hebraic calendar date Tisha B'av. But Sharon warned Israeli opponents of the withdrawal not to expect further delays, vowing that once it begins, the pullout from 21 Jewish enclaves in Gaza and four smaller settlements in the northern West Bank will be completed in less than a month. "There are to this day people who think that the plan can be put off," Sharon told Yedioth Ahronoth. "We cannot accept every proposal of one delay or another." Sharon told the Israeli website Ynetnews.com that Jewish settlers still have a major role to play in the country's future. "We need to settle in the Jerusalem region and we need to settle in the Galilee and the Negev (desert)," he said. "In the next 15 years, we must bring another million Jews (from abroad)." In a separate development yesterday, Israeli and Palestinian officials engaged in the first high-level meetings in more than a month to discuss ways to co-ordinate the disengagement from Gaza. Israeli Deputy Premier Shimon Peres and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia met for two hours on ways to restore economic co-operation following the pullout. Israeli and Palestinian security officials met separately on ways to advance the handover of West Bank towns to Palestinian control. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer? pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid= 1114120211156&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist1016110013469 Fair Use Notice The above is copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Your Comments |
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