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Israeli PM draws the line with limited withdrawal plan

A Palestinian woman collapses after an Israeli military incursion at a psychiatric hospital in the West Bank town of Bethlehem yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel must unilaterally pull out of areas it will clearly not control in the framework of a final peace accord, ahead of talks with US envoys about his "disengagement" plan.

In the West Bank town of Bethlehem early yesterday, a shootout erupted at a mental hospital when soldiers and Palestinian militants holed up in the building traded fire, the army said. The troops later succeeded in arresting 12 wanted Palestinians among the militants.

On Wednesday, Sharon defended his plan during a speech in Tel Aviv, saying there was no Palestinian partner for peace negotiations, and so Israel had to take its own action.

Sharon has proposed pulling Israeli soldiers and settlers out of all or most of the Gaza Strip and dismantling a few settlements in the West Bank as unilateral measures, if peace talks remain frozen.

Sharon said Israel must draw its own security line, which would mean "withdrawal from areas which it is understood will not be under Israeli control in any permanent agreement to be signed in the future, which cause great friction between Israelis and Palestinians -- the Gaza Strip, for example."

The team of US envoys is making its third visit since February, trying to pin Sharon down on the details of his plan. He has not yet made public exactly where Israel's new lines would be and how many settlements would be evacuated.

The envoys -- US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and two senior officials from the US National Security Council, Stephen Hadley and Elliot Abrams -- were to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and other Palestinian officials in Jericho yesterday, Palestinian officials said. In their previous visits, the envoys have spoken only to Israeli officials.

The spokesman for the US Consulate in Jerusalem, Chuck Hunter, said a meeting with the Palestinians was under consideration, but no final decision had been made.

This week a violent Palestinian group warned the three not to enter Palestinian territories, but a leader of the group -- the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades -- said there was no threat to harm the Americans. The warning illustrated Palestinian anger with the US, perceived as backing Israel in the conflict.

Sharon is to meet US President George W. Bush in Washington on April 14 to discuss the plan.

In his speech on Wednesday, Sharon said that if violence continued, international donors had said they could not maintain their contributions to the Palestinians, which supported 1.8 million people.

Stopping foreign aid to the Palestinians would be a "humanitarian disaster," he said, and Israel would be blamed.

Sharon said: "The world will not allow the stalemate to continue. The stalemate will inevitably bring a flood of international initiatives," and Israel's vital interests would not be taken into account.

"Israel must take a step that will prevent political collapse," he said.

Sharon blamed the Palestinians for not moving to stop violence. An Israeli pullout from Gaza would remove their main "excuse," he said, and then, "we need to tell them ... when there is no Israeli presence, let's see you start to act."

Qureia cautiously welcomed the Gaza plan, but only as a first step to a full West Bank withdrawal.

"In principle, we welcome the Israeli withdrawal from our Palestinian land," Qureia told Palestinian lawmakers. "But for any withdrawal to have meaning for us ... it should be followed by a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, too."

Palestinians want a state in all the West Bank and Gaza. But many in Sharon's hardline government view his limited withdrawal plan as a final offer.

Qureia also condemned Palestinian suicide attacks, which have killed more than 450 Israelis over the past three-and-a-half years of violence, saying they damaged the Palestinian economy, gave Israel cover to continue building settlements and a contentious West Bank barrier -- and were morally wrong.
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