Buoyed by opinion polls, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed yesterday to forge a new government if pro-settler coalition partners try to block his plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Once considered the godfather of the settlement movement, Sharon won a confidence vote in parliament by a single vote late on Monday after saying he had ordered that plans be drawn up to remove 17 of the 20 Gaza enclaves.
PHOTO: AP
The announcement, which stunned friends and foes alike, marked the first time Sharon had revealed details for such an extensive pullout from land Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
While Sharon's ruling coalition is in turmoil, an opinion poll published yesterday in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper showed 59 percent of Israelis supported uprooting Gaza settlements and 34 percent opposed such a move.
In remarks published yesterday elaborating on the initiative, Sharon said the process would take one to two years and would include evacuation of three of the more than 120 settlements in the West Bank.
"I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza," he said in an interview with the daily Haaretz.
He said he would seek US approval and financial aid to "relocate" about 7,500 settlers from the strip.
Polls show Israelis largely willing to part with Gaza. Its enclaves require a heavy military presence to protect and have little of the biblical significance that draws Jews to the West Bank, where more than 200,000 settlers live.
Sharon's plans, laid out to his right-wing Likud party in a tense meeting on Monday, enraged members of the Jewish settler movement he championed for decades.
A Cabinet minister from the far-right National Religious Party, one of Sharon's coalition partners, responded with a threat to resign after storming out of parliament and abstaining from the confidence vote.
"We won't participate in this," Housing Minister Effi Eitam told Israel Radio of Sharon's plans to evict settlers.
If Sharon presents such a plan to the US, "the timing of our departure would be merely tactical," he said.
The National Religious Party, headed by Eitam, has six seats in parliament, and if it left the coalition Sharon would command a shaky 62-58 majority in the 120-member legislature, including another seven-seat pro-settler party.
"I will not hesitate to set up another government," Sharon told Yedioth Ahronoth. "Not that I am rushing to take such a step, but I have no intention of being at the mercy of factions ... that won't permit me to handle matters of state."
Palestinians and Israel's left-wing opposition met Sharon's plan with skepticism, and some critics suggested he was trying to distract public attention from a widening corruption probe focusing on him and his family. Sharon denies any wrongdoing.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS