MAALE ADUMIM, April 13: Israel will keep its largest Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday before a trip to Washington to secure US approval for a unilateral pullout from Gaza.
Mr Sharon's comments were certain to incense Palestinians, who want a state on territories seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 war and fear that Israel will give up the Gaza Strip just to consolidate its grip on far larger West Bank settlements.
"Only Israeli political initiative will retain our strong grasp of the large settlement blocs and security areas," Mr Sharon said at Israel's biggest West Bank settlement, Maale Adumim, on a visit at the end of the Jewish Passover holiday. He described the blocs as "places that will remain under Israeli control, that will continue to grow stronger and develop".
There are some 230,000 settlers in the West Bank, home to more than two million Palestinians. Mr Sharon flew to Washington on Tuesday for a White House meeting with President George Bush at which Israeli sources said they expect a deal ensuring Israel would not have to cede all of the West Bank in any future peace agreement.
But Mr Bush, after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Texas on Monday, appeared more cautious. He welcomed any Israeli pullout from Gaza as a positive step but said it would not replace the plan to create a Palestinian state, as described in the US-backed roadmap.
"If he were to decide to withdraw, it would be a positive development," Mr Bush told reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. "We are both in agreement that if Israel makes a decision to withdraw it doesn't replace the roadmap."
That plan, laid low by violence, envisions a Palestinian state in exchange for guarantees of Israeli security. But Mr Sharon has said he sees no Palestinian negotiating partner and plans withdrawal from Gaza in its stead.
US SUPPORT VITAL: The Israeli premier needs Mr Bush's backing for the Gaza plan to help overcome opposition from pro-settler nationalists to handing over any land. Sources have said "understandings" on key aspects of Mr Sharon's unilateral plan had been struck, without elaborating.
Underscoring the continual battle in Gaza, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians trying to slip into the Jewish settlement of Netzarim - among 20 Jewish enclaves where 7,500 settlers live among 1.3 million Palestinians.
A joint statement by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah militant groups claimed responsibility for the botched Netzarim attack. Washington has signalled receptiveness to Mr Sharon's go-it-alone plan if he can show that it could help revive, not replace, the roadmap, which envisages a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.
"There is no assurance now Sharon will get all he wants. The Americans are concerned about anything that could have pre-emptive effect on final-status negotiations. If they see disengagement getting in the roadmap's way, they won't buy it," said a senior political source close to Mr Sharon.
Aides to Mr Sharon said he would reiterate in Washington a commitment in principle to the roadmap. But his priority now is to shield Israel from militant attacks in part by drawing a new boundary around West Bank settlement blocs.
This would strip Palestinians of land they want for a state because Mr Sharon sees these settlements as strategically vital and not to be yielded under any future peace treaty. -Reuters
