The Cabinet approved yesterday the formation of a ministerial committee to oversee the implementation of the Sasson Report’s recommendations, which disclosed the illicit support of illegal outposts by elements in the government.

Nineteen voted in favor, while only one, Knesset member Dalia Itzik, opposed the committee’s formation, Army Radio reported. Ms. Itzik argued that since the revelations of the report point clearly to illegal activity, the establishment of a committee would create an unnecessary delay in dealing with the offenders.

Earlier yesterday, Prime Minister Sharon opened the weekly Cabinet meeting by stating, “the evacuation of outposts is part of the commitment to the road map.” Government officials said that since the road map had called for the dismantling of all outposts set up since March 2001, the government’s initial focus would be on the 24 outposts that Talia Sasson said had been set up since that period. The Cabinet also unanimously approved the appointment of Major General Dan Halutz as the next IDF chief of staff.

In his opening statement before the Cabinet, Mr. Sharon expressed confidence in Mr. Halutz and thanked current IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Ya’alon for his efforts. “I am certain that Major General Halutz will be an excellent chief of staff and will lead the IDF well ahead of the complex missions that await it.

“On behalf of the entire government, I want to thank Lieutenant General Moshe Ya’alon, who has served as IDF chief of staff with great success, has led it to impressive achievements, and who played a very important role in the campaign against terrorism, a campaign that is still continuing,” Mr. Sharon said.

The Sasson Report documented government collusion over the last five administrations, going back to Yitzhak Rabin in the mid-1990s, in the establishment of some 105 unauthorized outposts, including 61 built on land that did not belong to the state, and 15 built on Palestinian Arab-owned land. Ms. Sasson found that the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization and the Housing Ministry had poured millions of shekels into the outposts, even though the Cabinet had not approved a single one of them.

In addition, she found that the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria was careless about the land that it allocated for the new outposts, and that the defense minister’s settlement adviser had given orders to move mobile homes into illegal outposts and had written letters declaring that some of the outposts had been approved by the planning authorities, even though this was not the case. Government officials said that the committee would be charged with “finding remedies” for the situation documented.

Some ministers, such as Interior Minister Ophir Paz-Pines, have already called on the attorney general to open up police investigations against some civil servants as a result of the Sasson Report.

“The attorney general should take action to make clear that Israel will not tolerate a situation where civil servants and government offices take the law lightly, and violate it to torpedo government decisions,” he said after the report was released. One senior government source said that Mr. Sharon was not expecting to come under a great deal of pressure over this issue from the slew of international leaders he was slated to meet with this week in Jerusalem at the dedication of Yad Vashem’s new museum.

The international community was “prioritizing” matters right now, the source said, and was concentrating more now on the upcoming disengagement than on the outposts.

Taking a page out of the Palestinian Arab playbook when Palestinian Authority leaders are asked about stopping terror and often reply that they can only be expected to give a 100% effort, not 100% results, one senior official said that the Sasson Report was an indication that Israel was now willing to exert a “100% effort” to remove the outposts set up since March 2001, when Mr. Sharon had assumed power. But, the official added, “100% results” could not be expected overnight.