Sharon: Remove All Gaza Settlements at Once

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The New York Sun

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Sharon wants all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip evacuated at the same time instead of in three stages, officials said yesterday, reflecting a major shift in tactics in his pullout plan.


Mr. Sharon’s goal is to prevent drawn-out and violent confrontations between settlers and the security forces, as well as multiple confrontations in his Cabinet.


According his “unilateral disengagement” plan as approved in June, the Gaza settlements are to be removed in three stages by the end of September 2005. Four small West Bank settlements are also to be evacuated.


Mr. Sharon presented the new formula to his Security Cabinet, a forum of senior ministers, yesterday. Dropping the staged pullout of Gaza is meant to stifle criticism and limit armed resistance to what would be the first time Israel has ever removed authorized settlements in the West Bank or Gaza.


Since Mr. Sharon first raised the plan in December, settlers have been organizing to resist. Though most of the 8,000 Gaza settlers are expected to accept compensation or alternative housing and leave quietly, a small hard core of settlers would likely dig in and try to fend off security forces.


Removing all 21 settlements at once would be practical, said political analyst Hanan Crystal.


“If they do it in stages, the same thousand settlers will run from one place to the next” to resist, he said. “If they do it all at once, where can they run?”


The one-off evacuation also helps Mr. Sharon solve political problems. Faced with a Cabinet rebellion, Mr. Sharon rammed the plan through in June, but had to agree to additional votes for each stage of the evacuation.


The welfare minister, Zevulun Orlev, of the pro-settler National Religious Party said a Security Cabinet vote yesterday, authorizing police to handle the actual removal of settlers, still does not obligate the government to evacuate the settlements.


“It’s all words,” Mr. Orlev told Army Radio. “We approved all the backdrops, but there is no approval for the performance itself.”


Mr. Sharon has lost two battles over his pullout plan – a nonbinding referendum by party members and a convention vote. The next confrontation is set for today. Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin said the prime minister would present a timetable for Cabinet and Parliament votes on the evacuation to his rebellious Likud Party legislative faction today.


Mr. Sharon refuses to coordinate the pullout with Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, charging that it has not stopped terrorists from attacking Israelis.


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