JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Sharon inaugurated a new, tempestuous session of Parliament yesterday by defending his plan to dismantle all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and a few in the West Bank. Right-wing legislators want to dismantle his government instead.

Mr. Sharon told a noisy Parliament that he would present the pullout plan for approval on October 25, then said he would bring a bill for compensating the 8,500 settlers to be evacuated.

In a symbolic first blow, Parliament voted against Mr. Sharon’s statement, 53-44, but his government was not immediately endangered. Two motions of no confidence were voted down.

The evacuation is to begin during summer 2005 and last about 12 weeks, according to a government timetable, but Mr. Sharon’s government might not survive that long.

Over the heckling of hard-line lawmakers who reject the concept of removing any Jewish settlements, Mr. Sharon declared that dismantling all 21 settlements in Gaza and four small ones in the West Bank is necessary to return the diplomatic initiative to Israel.

“It is essential for us to see that our friends, especially the United States, stand by us,” Mr. Sharon said, warning that a continued stalemate would work against Israel, while blaming Palestinian Arabs for the freeze.

He said Israel accepts the “road map” peace plan backed by America, but the Palestinian Arabs have scuttled the plan by failing to stop terrorists from attacking Israelis and refusing to reform their administration. Palestinian Arabs charge that the presence of Israelis and Israeli military operations are perpetuating the violence.

He promised Parliament “constant supervision” over the implementation of the pullout plan and left open the door to changing it or backing away from it if the security situation deteriorates.

“We will reserve the right to determine the state of security and adapt the plan to the reality, with the main priority of defending ourselves and preventing terror,” he said. After decades of building and expanding Jewish settlements, Mr. Sharon suddenly announced last December that he favored pulling all Jewish settlers out of Gaza.

He explained that leaving 8,200 settlers in Gaza among 1.3 million Palestinian Arabs was untenable, and evacuating settlements there would help Israel hold on to main settlement blocs in the West Bank Palestinian Arabs call the plan a land grab aimed at preventing them from establishing a state, while Mr. Sharon’s own backers fear that once the settlements start coming down, the process will not end until all of them are gone – exactly as the Palestinian Arabs demand.

In Gaza yesterday a large-scale Israeli operation continued, with the aim of stopping terrorists from firing rockets at Israeli towns. About 2,000 Israeli soldiers have been battling insurgents since September 29, following a rocket strike that killed two Israeli children.

The Israeli military recommended the operation be halted, saying it had run its course, but Mr. Sharon refused, Israeli security sources said Sunday.

“We will have another assessment of the situation at the end of week and will decide how to proceed and what other directions we will operate,” said the defense minister, Shaul Mofaz.

The deep ideological disagreements over the “unilateral disengagement” plan are expected to dominate the parliamentary session that began yesterday, and some lawmakers said it was unlikely Mr. Sharon’s government would complete its term, due to expire in November 2006.

Mr. Sharon lost his parliamentary majority in June over the plan, but the house was in recess from July until yesterday, giving him a reprieve from no-confidence motions that might have forced his resignation. Two no confidence motions already were on the table yesterday – the first meeting of the legislature’s winter session – but they were rejected by wide margins.

Under Israeli rules, a no-confidence motion requires an absolute majority of 61 votes of the 120 members to pass. While Mr. Sharon commands 59 votes at the most, some of his opponents abstain or absent themselves during voting, leaving the opposition short of the required 61.