Support For Sharon Settlement Plan

The Israeli opposition Labor Party said Tuesday it will back Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to dismantle Jewish settlements in Gaza, while the Palestinian prime minister welcomed the plan.

Sharon Tuesday said his plan to dismantle 17 Gaza settlements is extremely painful but vital to Israel's future, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.

"I will implement the plan to improve Israel's security," Sharon said in his first public remarks since announcing the proposal Sunday.

"Of course, it is good news for us," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told Voice of Palestine radio, in his first public remarks on Sharon's announcement a day earlier. "We hope that Israel will withdraw from all Palestinian areas."

Qureia said any Gaza pullout should be followed by a similar Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

"Then, there will be a real peace. Otherwise, the situation will remain as is," he said.

Israel's Channel 2 reported Tuesday night that Sharon and Qureia would meet next week. Sharon also will take his plan to Washington, where he's expected to meet with President Bush later this month.

The support from Labor assures Sharon of a parliamentary majority even if ultra-nationalists quit Sharon's coalition in protest.

Sharon shrugged off the growing threats to his government, saying he is determined to go ahead with plans to remove 17 settlements in Gaza and three in the West Bank without waiting for a peace deal with the Palestinians. He said he would try to form a new governing coalition rather than back down.

The prime minister's surprise announcement Monday divided Israelis into two camps: those who believe Sharon, for decades the main architect of Jewish settlement expansion, is truly changing course; and those who suspect him of trying to sow confusion and deflect attention from a widening corruption probe against him.

A poll conducted by the Dahaf Institute for the newspaper Yediot Ahronot found 59 percent supported the plan with 37 percent opposed. Another 24 percent believe Sharon is trying to distract attention from his problems.

Commentators said whatever Sharon's motives, his declaration has created irreversible facts, and no future prime minister could demand to hold on to parts of Gaza in a peace deal with the Palestinians. "The words that were uttered can never be taken back," commentator Dan Margalit wrote in the Maariv daily.

Many Israelis see the Gaza settlements as a security burden. Israel controls one-third of the strip, while 1.3 million Palestinians share the rest.

In his first public comment on the issue Tuesday, Sharon avoided mention of Gaza but said he was determined to press ahead with the removal of settlements. "Not only is this difficult for the settlers, but also, it is more painful for myself than anyone else in Israel," Sharon said during a visit of the coastal city of Ashkelon. "But I've reached a decision and I am going to carry it out."

Sharon told the Haaretz daily that Israel would need one or two years to remove the settlements on his list and relocate 7,500 Gaza settlers to Israel.

The Labor Party, meanwhile, extended elder statesman Shimon Peres' term as temporary party leader until December 2005. A rival proposal to have Peres step down by June was narrowly defeated.

Peres in the past was a strong advocate of a Labor-Likud government, and led the party into Sharon's first coalition in 2001. However, in recent months, Peres, 80, has harshly criticized Sharon's policies, suggesting he was not interested in a replay of a so-called "national unity government."

Peres told a Labor convention Tuesday that the party would support Sharon "as long as he continues on this road" of removing settlements, but stopped short of saying his party would join the government.

This means Sharon would be assured a majority in parliament for the removal of settlements, even if the pro-settler National Religious Party and the National Union quit the coalition. Sharon's coalition controls 68 seats in the 120-member parliament, and would lose its majority with the departure of the two factions.

If Labor refuses to join — and some senior party figures strongly oppose a unity government — Sharon's political future would become increasingly uncertain, even if he survives the police probe.

Sharon brushed aside the threats to his coalition. "I won't hesitate to form a different government," he told the Yediot Ahronot daily. "It's not like I'm running to take this course of action, but I have no intention of being at the mercy of factions and individual legislators who won't allow me to run the affairs of state."