Sharon Presses Gaza Pullout Plan

Senior Israeli Cabinet ministers on Tuesday approved the payment of cash advances to Jewish settlers who will be removed from their homes under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

The 9-1 vote in the Security Cabinet marked the government's first concrete step toward the withdrawal and gave a boost to Sharon, who faces growing opposition. Earlier Tuesday, he rejected a rival's call to hold a national referendum on a Gaza pullout, calling it a stalling tactic.

Sharon wants to withdraw from all of Gaza and a small part of the West Bank by September 2005, removing 8,500 settlers from their homes.

He hopes the cash advances will entice settlers to leave voluntarily well ahead of the deadline, avoiding confrontations between settlers and troops.

Settler leaders bitterly oppose any withdrawal. Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a settler spokesman, said the vote "proves this is a destructive, illegitimate government."

In other developments, Sharon threatened to expel Yasser Arafat "at a convenient time," saying in a newspaper interview that he saw no difference between the Palestinian leader and top Hamas militants killed by Israel. Israel says Arafat has encouraged and financed attacks on Israel.

However, Sharon, who has made similar threats in the past, isn't expected to take action against the Palestinian leader while he is focused on the Gaza plan.

Nonetheless, Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat called the threats part of a hidden agenda "to kill President Arafat and to push the Palestinian people toward chaos."

In the West Bank, a Palestinian suicide bomber riding a bike blew himself up near a checkpoint, wounding at least two Israeli soldiers, the army said. Rescue services said one of the soldiers was seriously wounded.

Lt. Col. Shimon, an Israeli commander at the scene, said the incident occurred as Palestinian farmers crossed through a gate in Israel's separation barrier near the West Bank town of Qalqilya.

"He looked like an innocent civilian ... It appears he even spoke to the soldiers," said Shimon, who is barred from giving his last name under army rules. "Then he turned the bike around and blew up."

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility. It said the bombing was meant to avenge the killing of three Al Aqsa members in an Israeli missile strike the day before.

Under the compensation plan approved Tuesday by the Security Cabinet, a group of 10 senior ministers, families would receive $200,000 to $500,000, based on the value of lost homes and property and time spent in their settlements. The advances would amount to about one-third of the total.

Although officials said it could be weeks before the payments begin, the vote, which came after a stormy meeting, marked an important accomplishment for Sharon.

Sharon's ruling Likud Party is bitterly divided over the withdrawal plan. Political analyst Hanan Crystal noted that all Likud ministers voted in favor of the compensation scheme. "This is the key," he said on Israel Radio.

Sharon has previously lost two contests in Likud over his plan.

The withdrawals are a key part of Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan, meant to separate Israelis and Palestinians after four years of fighting. He says there is no serious negotiating partner on the Palestinian side.

In newspaper interviews ahead of the Jewish Near Year, Sharon rejected a proposal by Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold a referendum on the Gaza withdrawal. Netanyahu, a former prime minister with ambitions to return to the job, is Sharon's main rival for leadership of the Likud Party.

Threats of violent resistance by Jewish settlers have increased calls for a national referendum on the pullout, which opinion polls show has strong support in the Israeli public. But a referendum would require parliament to legislate a bill allowing for such a vote, a process that Sharon said would delay the withdrawal.

"The issue is not on the agenda," Sharon told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper. "The real intention here is to delay the implementation."

Netanyahu denied his motive was to postpone the pullout. "It doesn't have to delay the timetable, but it will moderate the fury and remove the objections heard from some quarters about the legitimacy of this program," he said.

Sharon is wary of Netanyahu. He has offered only lukewarm support for the withdrawal plan, although he voted in favor of the compensation bill Tuesday.