Tough Test Looms For Mideast Plan

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returned home Friday after White House talks with President Bush, facing a tough battle over his "disengagement" plan despite the U.S. president's endorsement of an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and small areas of the West Bank.

Sharon's first challenge is to persuade skeptical members of his Likud Party who will hold a May 2 referendum on the withdrawal plan. Polls published Friday give the prime minister only a slim majority among 200,000 party members.

According to the plan, published in full for the first time in Israeli newspapers Friday, the withdrawal would be completed by 2005. Israel would not destroy the settlements it leaves behind — unlike in a pullout from the Sinai Peninsula in the 1980s — and would no longer consider itself responsible for areas it evacuates.

In a White House meeting Wednesday, Mr. Bush gave Sharon an important boost by endorsing the plan. The president also said Israel could keep parts of the West Bank in a final peace deal and would not be expected to take in Palestinian refugees, meeting two key Israeli demands that infuriated the Palestinians.

Likud Cabinet Minister Tzippe Livne had opposed the Gaza pullout, but now supports it. She said Mr. Bush sent the right message to the Palestinians that "time is working against those who are using terror to achieve political gains."

A source close to Sharon confirmed Friday that the prime minister had almost backed out of the summit and delayed his departure to Washington by three hours until he received the final draft of the Bush letter assuring him of his achievements.

Sharon hopes these concessions will propel him to victory in the Likud vote. If not, his son tells an Israeli newspaper, Sharon may quit as prime minister.

Polls published Friday gave Sharon a lead, but suggested victory is not assured.

If Sharon wins, he plans to bring the plan to his Cabinet and the parliament within days. If he loses he will face growing pressure to resign.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell is leading a diplomatic offensive to placate Arab leaders outraged by Mr. Bush's support for Sharon's plans.

The Palestinians have said they welcome any Israeli withdrawal from land they claim for their state, but were shocked by Mr. Bush's support for Israel's demand to keep parts of the West Bank and bar Palestinian refugees from Israel.

Powell insisted in interviews and telephone calls Thursday Mr. Bush's meeting with Sharon produced positive results for the Palestinians and their statehood aspirations.

For the first time in 37 years, Powell said, Israeli settlements are being removed and the property used to benefit the Palestinian people.

"The president did not endorse any particular outcome," Powell said at a State Department news conference. "He did not endorse any settlements yesterday."

Nor, Powell said, did Mr. Bush take positions different from those of previous administrations that "modifications, adjustments, changes will be required" in the borders Israel held before capturing the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war.

"Everybody knows that," Powell said, although he acknowledged that "we know this is a very emotional issue for all people in the region, on both sides."

Sharon may visit the U.S. again in a few weeks, a diplomatic source told Israel Radio, and, if so, he may then meet with Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Israel's prime minister traditionally addresses the annual conference of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group.

The plan published Friday outlines the three main points: withdrawal from all of Gaza, evacuating a settlement pocket in the northern West Bank and completion of the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.

According to the plan Israel will leave all of Gaza except for a patrol road along the Egyptian border. Israel also intends to retain full control of the crossings into Gaza and Gaza airspace. Israel's navy would keep patrolling the Gaza coast.

Israel may expand the border road before the withdrawal, the plan said. Since the current round of fighting erupted in September 2000, Israel has already razed more than 600 Palestinian homes near the patrol road, in the Rafah refugee camp.

Also Friday, security officials said they plan to dismantle 28 unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts in the next few weeks. About 240 families live in those outposts, the officials said.

Israel is required to remove dozens of outposts as part of the now dormant U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, but has taken down only a few. In his meeting with Bush, Sharon promised to keep his commitment.

Israel has given the Americans a "check-list" of its progress with previous commitments — including the outpost removal and a freeze on settlement construction, Gissin said.