Israel Will Ask America To Help With Gaza Withdrawal

JERUSALEM – Israel will ask America for money to help with the Gaza withdrawal, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said yesterday ahead of a trip to Washington.Mr. Peres spoke as Gaza settlers sought higher compensation for their homes and demanded to be moved to Israel as a group – a sign that many have resigned themselves to the pullout after initially threatening a fight to the finish.Settler leaders met yesterday with Prime Minister Sharon to discuss compensation and resettlement, ending months of angry refusal to talk.Mr. Sharon agrees in principle to a proposal to move most Gaza settlers as a group to the Nitzanim coastal area, between the towns of Ashkelon and Ashdod and a few miles from their current homes, a senior Israeli official said. Mr. Sharon was expected to tour the area in coming days.In a meeting with Cabinet ministers and senior government officials involved in the withdrawal, an angry Mr. Sharon demanded quicker action.The government, meanwhile, approved the first compensation deal with a settler family, saying the first check would be signed by the end of the week. A committee on Monday reviewed the first eight compensation claims.So far, about 60 out of 1,600 settler families have reached tentative agreements with the government to leave voluntarily this summer in exchange for compensation.In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian gunmen shot and seriously wounded an Israeli yesterday in a greenhouse in the Jewish settlement of Morag, the army said.An umbrella militant group, the Popular Resistance Committee, claimed responsibility, saying it was “in retaliation for Israel’s daily crimes against the Palestinians.”Hours before leaving for Washington, Mr. Peres refused to say how much money Israel is seeking from America. He is to meet Vice President Cheney and other Bush administration officials to discuss the planned withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements. Mr. Sharon is expected to meet Bush next week.One official close to the Bush administration said there are expectations in Washington that Israel would request $500 million in aid.Mr. Peres told the Associated Press yesterday that “for Gaza, I think, the United States has already allocated money, and we want to coordinate our efforts.”Mr. Peres said American aid would be used to assist the Palestinians and to develop the northern Galilee region and the southern Negev Desert, near Gaza. Israel wants to relocate Jewish settlers to these areas, and is offering extra compensation to those who agree to move to the outlying regions.An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said American funding for the Galilee and the Negev would free up Israeli money to increase compensation for settlers, who have complained they are not being paid enough for their properties.Israel has budgeted about $1 billion for the pullout.But the withdrawal could cost a great deal more once the government compensates the 9,000 evacuated settlers, moves its military installations, and completes construction of new fences and surveillance equipment along its border with Gaza, a government official said on condition of anonymity.In a sign that some Jewish settlers are coming to terms with the withdrawal, settler leaders met with Mr. Sharon yesterday. They said they will demand bigger cash payouts and seek to be moved as a group to a coastal area inside Israel.One settler said between 1,000 and 1,100 families were interested in moving to the Nitzanim coastal area just a few miles from their current homes in Gaza.The mayor of the Bdolah settlement in Gaza who is participating in the Sharon meeting, Amram Etach, said he and the 50 families in his town are willing to get less financial compensation in exchange for being relocated as a group.“The communal life we have here we won’t have anywhere else,” Mr. Etach told Israel’s Army Radio.Negotiations between the government and the town of Nitzan, just two miles from the Nitzanim coast, began two months ago, a member of the Nitzan council , Dan Meir, said. The Housing Ministry is working with town leaders to add up to 600 families to the community, increasing the size six fold.Other Gaza residents would move to nearby communities, settler leaders said. The overall plan, which was presented to Mr. Sharon late Monday, is to build 10 new towns in the Nitzanim area, three of them agricultural, Mr. Etach said. Settler leaders said Mr. Sharon gave tentative approval.

Israel Will Ask America To Help With Gaza Withdrawal

Israel Will Ask America To Help With Gaza Withdrawal

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