Sharon Makes Final Pullout Pitch

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a final break with his former allies in the Jewish settler movement, appealing to parliament to approve a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in a historic vote Tuesday.

The plan would mark the first time Israel has pulled down Jewish settlements in the West Bank or Gaza. It has bitterly divided the nation, and solidified Sharon's transformation from long-time patron of the Jewish settlers to their No. 1 nemesis.

Meanwhile, Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip fired a homemade rocket into Israel on Tuesday, Palestinian residents said. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Witnesses reported a large explosion on the Israeli side of the Erez crossing, which divides Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said militants had launched three projectiles — either mortars or homemade Qassam rockets — near the crossing. It gave no details on where the weapons had landed.

In other developments:

• Israeli troops withdrew from a refugee camp in southern Gaza, ending a two-day operation aimed at halting Palestinian mortar fire in which 17 Palestinians were killed.
• Speculation mounted that Yasser Arafat is suffering from a serious ailment following news that the 75-year-old Palestinian leader underwent an endoscopy to check his digestive tract. Israeli security officials said there is "something serious," possibly cancer. Palestinian officials said Arafat is merely recovering from the flu.
• Several thousand settlers and their supporters gathered Tuesday for an anti-Sharon demonstration in a park outside the Knesset. Many of the protesters were children from settlements, which canceled school Tuesday for the event.

  "I came to tell the people of Israel this is our land and this is my house and no power on earth can move me from it," said David Pinipnta, a 31-year-old resident of the Gaza settlement of Neve Dekalim.

• Thousands of Sharon supporters demonstrated outside the Knesset on Monday night, singing songs, waving Israeli flags and holding signs reading "leaving settlements — a choice for life" and "leave Gaza immediately."
• A Jerusalem Post reporter was able to walk into Jerusalem's main police headquarters without challenge, even entering the district commander's office, despite an elaborate security system. Police officials promised that "heads will roll."

"This is a fateful moment for Israel. We are dealing with a difficult decision that has few parallels," he said in a speech repeatedly interrupted by heckling from hard-line opponents.

Israeli commentators said Sharon's speech was remarkable, both for his gestures toward the Palestinians and his unprecedented criticism of settlers.

"You are wonderful pioneers, builders of the land, settlers on barren soil, in rain and through winter, through all difficulties. However, you have one weakness — you have developed among yourselves a messianic complex," he said.

"Even if tomorrow morning Ariel Sharon resigns from his position, or is deposed, or recants, this earthquake has already occurred. The rift has taken place. Nothing will ever be the same," wrote Ben Caspit in the Maariv daily.

Tuesday's vote is the climax of a months-long confrontation over Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan, which has torn apart Sharon's Likud Party and weakened his coalition government.

Sharon was expected to win, but only with the help of dovish opposition parties. Nearly half of Likud's 40 lawmakers said they would vote against him, and two religious parties that Sharon has courted — Shas and United Torah Judaism — also have come out against the plan.

Sharon had hoped for a strong victory to silence opponents' demand to hold a national referendum on the plan. Sharon opposes a referendum, which would take months to prepare, as a stalling tactic.

Sharon is counting on at least 65 votes in the 120-member Knesset, with at least 48 lawmakers expected to vote against the plan.

Tuesday's vote is only the first of several required before the plan can be implemented next year. Sharon's shaky government remains in danger of falling over other issues, including the budget.

Still, the vote — expected Tuesday night — would mark the first time an Israeli parliament has approved the dismantling of Jewish settlements in Gaza or the West Bank. Opinion polls show that a solid majority of the public supports Sharon.

Sharon's plan, which includes a total evacuation from Gaza and pulling down four small West Bank settlements, marks a dramatic transformation for the man who spent decades leading the effort to build up the settlements. As recently as early 2003, Sharon said that the Gaza settlements are an essential part of Israel.

But after four years of devastating violence in the region, Sharon believes the continued occupation of Gaza — where 8,200 Jewish settlers live amid 1.3 million Palestinians — is untenable.

Sharon said his plan would boost Israel's security and help ensure the country's identity as a Jewish democracy. Sharon also believes it will blunt international criticism of Israel and strengthen its hold over large parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands the Palestinians claim for a state.

Jewish settlers and hard-line lawmakers accuse Sharon of caving in to Palestinian violence and fear the withdrawal will be the first step in a larger pullback.

Sharon told the parliament Monday that supporting the withdrawal, which will uproot 8,800 settlers, was the most difficult decision of his long career.

"I know the significance of the Knesset's decision for thousands of Israelis who have lived for many years in the Gaza Strip, who were sent there in the name of Israeli governments, and built their homes there," he said. "I know this well. I sent many."

However, he said Israel does not want to rule over millions of Palestinians. He suggested the settlers were unreasonable in their opposition.

Sharon even made some conciliatory remarks toward the Palestinians, expressing regret for the plight of refugees displaced by fighting with Israel.

Many of Sharon's former allies felt betrayed. Sharon "is the architect and the originator of the settlement enterprise. So to talk like this to the people he sent, there's a name for it. It's a kind of treason," said Effie Eitam of the National Religious Party.