AL QUDS, April 4: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon clashed on Sunday with hardline ministers over his plan to withdraw from most of the Gaza Strip and some of the West Bank, political sources said.
Sharon plans to meet US President George W. Bush on April 14, after the Jewish Passover holiday, to seek his endorsement for the withdrawal that Palestinians welcome but want to see carried out through negotiations.
In Gaza, former Palestinian security chief Mohammad Dahlan, widely seen as a possible successor to President Yasser Arafat, said chaos could ensue in Gaza if the Palestinian Authority failed to prepare for an Israeli pullout.
Housing Minister Effie Eitam and Tourism Minister Benjamin Elon sharply criticised Sharon during the weekly cabinet meeting for taking the plan to Washington before bringing it before ministers.
"I called on the prime minister not to go to Washington immediately following the holiday," Eitam said on Channel 2, referring both to the failure to present the plan to the cabinet and a bribery probe against Sharon.
Elon and Eitam, whose parties represent the Jewish settlement lobby, have spoken against the pullout in recent trips abroad and Sharon responded to their criticism on Sunday with some of his own, the sources said.
"Anyone who feels ill at ease can get up and leave," Sharon said, according to the sources. Washington wants the Israeli pullout from Gaza to breathe life into a US-backed peace "road map" long stalled by violence, seeking to avoid the appearance of a unilateral move to separate from Palestinians that Sharon first proposed.
DECISION ON INDICTMENT: Sharon is taking the Gaza plan to Washington amid a stir over his political future stemming from the state attorney's recommendation that he be charged in a bribery probe.
The attorney general is to decide on the indictment within two months. Eitam said he was worried that Sharon would try to race the timetable of the pullout against the attorney general's decision.
On Sunday, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz took the advice of the state attorney and decided against charging Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert in the scandal, the Justice Ministry said.
In an attempt to rally support for the Gaza plan, Sharon agreed last week to put the pullout to a binding vote by his right-wing Likud party. Olmert warned that if the Likud failed to approve the plan, Israel would face a deep crisis.
Dahlan said he welcomed Sharon's plan to withdraw settlers and soldiers from most of Gaza as "a first step", alluding to a Palestinian demand that any such withdrawal be followed by a significant West Bank pullback.
But he added that the Palestinian Authority had failed so far to make any preparations for an Israeli pullout from Gaza. "We have to avoid the nightmare scenario whereby there will be chaos and the public would go and destroy evacuated settlements," he said.
Israel is also worried. Some Israeli officials said reoccupation of Gaza would be an option if militant groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, took over. -Reuters
