JERUSALEM, Oct 19: Israel's opposition leader Shimon Peres said on Tuesday he feared extremists might try to assassinate Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the target of growing far-right fury over a planned withdrawal from Gaza next year.
Mr Peres, head of the centre-left Labour party, said the divisive atmosphere recalled the climate when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was killed in 1995 by an ultra-nationalist Jew opposed to his peace deals with the Palestinians.
"I am very fearful of the incitement, of the harsh things that are being said," Mr Peres, Israel's leading dove and a key supporter of Sharon's pullout plan, told the daily Maariv.
"I fear that someone will try to assassinate the prime minister," he was quoted as saying.
Jewish settlers in occupied Gaza and the West Bank once saw Sharon as their champion but now brand him a traitor. Settler leaders boycotted a meeting with the prime minister aimed at calming tensions over his "disengagement" plan.
The snub came a day after Ariel Sharon faced rebellious lawmakers of his own rightist Likud who warned the party could split unless he put the pullout plan to a national referendum. Sharon bought time by agreeing to a task force to consider the matter.
Adding to Mr Sharon's troubles, leading right-wing rabbis have begun urging soldiers to refuse orders to dismantle settlements built on land Israel captured in the 1967 war.
In response, the army is planning to build a mock settlement at a desert base to train troops to remove settlers who may barricade themselves inside homes and synagogues or even resist violently, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said.
Security has been tightened around Sharon while police investigate a series of telephone death threats. Posters have been freshly plastered around Jerusalem accusing Sharon of "tearing the people apart".
Avraham Dichter, head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, said in July there were Jewish extremists who wanted to see Sharon dead and were backed by dozens opposed to the Gaza plan.
PUBLIC SUPPORT: Mr Sharon's U.S.-backed blueprint calls for removing all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 enclaves in the West Bank by the end of 2005 to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians.
Most Israelis favour giving up Gaza's heavily fortified settlements, but far-right opponents call it a "reward for terrorism" after four years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians see it as a ruse to keep much of the West Bank.
Some settler leaders have raised the spectre of violent resistance and even of civil war if Sharon goes ahead with evacuation. But such warnings have sparked outrage across the political spectrum and threats of prosecution for incitement.
Even with his ruling coalition on shaky ground, Sharon has vowed to keep to his timetable for bringing the principles of his plan to parliament next Monday for a debate and a crucial vote. He expects to win approval with Labour's support.
Sharon has opposed calls for a referendum, believing it would delay withdrawals beyond 2005.
Giora Eiland, Sharon's national security adviser, said the 8,000 Gaza settlers slated for evacuation would have until next July to accept government compensation and move out, or else face forcible eviction by September.
He repeated Israel's vow to demolish settler homes before leaving but said the fate of public buildings and industrial complexes would depend on whether an international "third party" stepped forward to play a role in any handover to Palestinians.
"We don't want an Israeli school (in a settlement) to turn into a Hamas academy," he told Israel Radio, referring to the Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction. -Reuters