ISRAEL: Israel's Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, the former champion of Jewish settlement throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, yesterday deliberately tore apart his own coalition government to pursue his new vision of a Gaza emptied of Jewish residents, writes David Horovitz in Jerusalem
He sent letters of dismissal to the two cabinet ministers from the far-right National Union party, in an effort to create a ministerial majority for his Gaza disengagement plan - his blueprint for the evacuation of all 21 settlements, home to some 7,500 Jews, and a complete military pullback, by the end of next year. Such sackings come into effect 48 hours after the letter is received.
Transport Minister Mr Avigdor Lieberman, receiving his letter of dismissal while working out at a Jerusalem health club, said he was "proud to be fired" for standing by his principles. But the second of the fired duo, Tourism Minister Mr Benny Elon, spent the day dodging the prime ministerial couriers, playing a cat-and-mouse game so that his dismissal would not take formal effect. Aides to Mr Sharon said he wouldn't be allowed into Sunday's cabinet meeting anyway. When Mr Sharon called to say he was fired, Mr Elon retorted that he couldn't be sure it was really the prime minister on the line and feared it might be a comic impersonator. But such antics were the least worrying of a potentially ruinous series of problems now faced by Mr Sharon.
Giving him some comfort was a poll yesterday which showed again that a majority of Israelis - 59 per cent in this survey for the Ha'aretz daily - endorse his assessment that Israel will be better when it no longer rules over Gaza's 1.3 Palestinians.
Mr Sharon, who has declared that there will be no Jews left in Gaza when he is done and says he will pull out unilaterally because he cannot trust the Yasser Arafat-led Palestinian Authority as a negotiating partner, also knows that he has the support of the Bush Administration.
The US is urging the Palestinians and other sceptical international players to regard the prime minister's ideological U-turn as a "courageous step towards peace," in the words of President Bush. The sceptics fear that Mr Sharon wants to trade Gaza to strengthen Israel's hold on a substantial proportion of the West Bank.
For all the domestic and American backing, however, Mr Sharon is defying his own Likud party, whose members voted overwhelmingly against the disengagement plan a month ago. And he risks open confrontation with senior Likud ministers, and possibly even the loss of his prime ministership.
The man he succeeded as Likud leader, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, was grudgingly prepared to support the withdrawal until the Likud membership so soundly rejected it on May 2nd. For much of this week, he was engaged in talks on an amended compromise formula, which Mr Sharon rejected on Thursday after the Americans made clear they were holding the prime minister to his original commitments.
Mr Netanyahu can be expected to spend the weekend engaged in political arithmetic.
With the National Union party now dispatched to opposition by Mr Sharon, another rightist coalition faction, the National Religious Party, might soon be headed there. Its leader, Housing Minister Effie Eitam, castigated Mr Sharon yesterday for advocating a "terrible, immoral and dangerous" scheme.
In addition many, perhaps most, of the Likud's 40 Knesset members oppose the plan.
If Mr Netanyahu believes the ranks of Mr Sharon's long-time opponents and the newly-disillusioned can combine to form a parliamentary majority, this coming week may see the start of his bid to unseat the prime minister.