Prime Minister Ariel Sharon angrily dismissed a new rebellion in his Likud Party on Wednesday, saying he won't cave in to rivals' threats over his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
Also Wednesday, some 40 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles moved into the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, exchanging fire with Palestinian militants, witnesses said. There were no initial reports of injuries.
Military officials said the raid was intended to root out Palestinian militants in the camp and was expected to last a number of days. Israel has frequently raided West Bank towns and refugee camps during the last four years of fighting.
Bolstered by a parliamentary vote Tuesday, Sharon said he would stand firm against the rebels, who include his top rival, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and pledged to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank on schedule next summer.
"I know that many problems await us along the way. The disengagement will be carried out," Sharon told the Yediot Ahronot daily. "I am meeting the timetable that I have determined." In Tuesday's historic vote, parliament for the first time approved the dismantling of Jewish settlements in lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war and which are claimed by the Palestinians for a state.
After four years of fighting with the Palestinians, Sharon says his "disengagement" plan will improve security and ensure the country's identity as a Jewish democracy. However, he also intends to keep large West Bank settlements and east Jerusalem, areas the Palestinians also seek for their state.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell called Sharon Wednesday to congratulate him on the Knesset's approval of withdrawal.
A senior US official said Powell called the parliament's action a step forward on President George W. Bush's vision of a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel.
Sharon won by a comfortable 67-45 margin, with seven legislators abstaining. But nearly half the Likud legislators and two religious parties voted against him, underscoring Sharon's break with his former hardline allies.
Sharon had little time to savor the victory. Just before the vote, the National Religious Party, a key partner in the coalition government, said it would quit within two weeks unless Sharon pledges to hold a nationwide referendum.
Four Likud ministers -- Netanyahu, Limor Livnat, Yisrael Katz and Danny Naveh -- voted for the plan and then immediately demanded Sharon accept the NRP ultimatum or they would resign from the government.
Proponents of the referendum claim a nationwide vote would give Sharon's proposal legitimacy. They say that Sharon betrayed his traditional supporters by suddenly announcing the plan early this year after decades of support for building settlements in occupied territories.
"We are acting according to our consciences," Netanyahu told Is-rael Radio. "We think the decision to go forward and to tear to shreds the people, the coalition and the Likud is a mistaken decision."
The turmoil raised new doubts about his ability to go ahead with the planned withdrawals. The resignations of senior Likud ministers could cause the government to crumble, forcing Sharon to call new elections, or delay implementation.
Sharon said he would not be swayed. While opinion polls show a solid majority of Israelis support him, he dismisses the referendum as a stalling tactic.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
RSS