Israeli PM: French Are 'Pro-Arab'

"First of all, the French are pro-Arab," Sharon told comic Eli Yatzpan in an interview conducted while strolling around Sharon's ranch, to be broadcast later Wednesday on the cable family channel. "One of the strangest things is that France is not prepared in any way to define Hezbollah as a terror group, though it is one of the most dangerous ones in existence," he said, referring to the Lebanese guerrillas who maintain a conflict with Israel.

Last year a Sharon comment calling on French Jews to flee to Israel because of anti-Semitism caused a serious diplomatic row between the two countries.

Abbas summoned legislators from his majority Fatah party Wednesday and told them this was no time for a political crisis. "The whole world is watching, and we have a lot to do," Fatah legislator Abdel Karim Abu Salah quoted Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, as telling party lawmakers.

Fatah legislator Mohammed Horani said the struggle appears to be over. "We have agreed in principle with Abu Mazen to let this crisis pass," he said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has been trying all week to install a new Cabinet. The first proposed Cabinet was stacked with cronies of the late Yasser Arafat, who are widely seen as corrupt, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger. Qureia made a few changes, but they were rejected too, so he will have to get rid of more officials from the so-called old guard. The Palestinian parliament is pushing for reform in the post-Arafat era.

Several legislators said they wanted to push out Qureia and would not support any Cabinet he proposes. Qureia would have to step down if he fails to get his Cabinet approved in coming days.

Abbas' forceful display Wednesday came after he did little in recent days to defuse the political crisis. He is still widely perceived as an unassertive politician.

The turmoil underscored the increasingly freewheeling nature of Palestinian politics following last year's death of Yasser Arafat, with politicians more willing to break party discipline.

Qureia was to appear Wednesday evening before the Fatah bloc, which has demanded that he nominate a Cabinet that excludes the two political old-timers who remain on the list, chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and outgoing Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath. Erekat said earlier Wednesday he did not want to be a minister.

Israel and the United States have long demanded reforms to the corruption-plagued Palestinian Authority, and success in the task is one of the key tests for Abbas.

Peres, meanwhile, has appealed to the Israeli government to sell businesses like greenhouses in Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians, rather than destroy them.

Israel plans to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank in the summer. The government still hasn't decided whether to leave settlers' homes and businesses intact after the pullout, or to demolish them.

"We are interested that the peace to come will be not only political, but also economic," Peres told a government committee coordinating the economic and civilian aspects of the withdrawal. "If the day after we leave Gaza, hunger and unemployment will grow, the bitterness will mount. And that will undermine to a large degree the possibility for peace."

Also during the ranch interview, Sharon warned of dire consequences from what he called "incitement" by opponents of his plan to pull Israeli settlers out of Gaza and part of the West Bank in the summer.

"We must not let this incitement continue," Sharon said. "In the end, something very bad will happen."

Sharon, dressed in a flannel shirt, talked to the comedian as cows mooed in the background.

"I take the threats very seriously," he said, referring to death threats received by some Cabinet ministers from extremist opponents. "If I get a bit of time, I plan to deal with this in a very serious way."

Sharon took aim at his main internal political rival, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose austerity budget has drawn fire from welfare advocates.

"This is a correct program from the economic point of view," he said, "but it is a program that lacks heart and compassion." He said the program must go forward, but he pledged to work to soften the blow to Israel's poor.