Israeli parliament approves Gaza plan

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, prevailed tonight in what he called the most important vote of his political life, as the Israeli ...

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, prevailed tonight in what he called the most important vote of his political life, as the Israeli parliament approved a vote on his plan to remove Israeli settlements from Gaza.

The vote was 67-45, with seven abstentions.

Thousands of settlers demonstrated outside the parliament. The debate has badly split his own Likud Party and coalition, and will leaves the prime minister with some difficult choices about whether to restructure his government or call new elections, or both.

While a defeat tonight would have doomed Sharon and his Gaza plan, the victory does not guarantee implementation. But the vote is an occasion of profound symbolism—the first time Israel will agree to dismantle settlements in Gaza, 21 of them, and the West Bank, though only four tiny ones there will go.

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A large part of Sharon’s own Likud Party, which had an old slogan about its refusal to return Palestinian territory—‘‘Not one inch!’’—opposed the plan and was trying to find some way to block it and its committed proponent, Sharon.

Internal opposition was led by Sharon’s finance minister, former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who would like to become prime minister again, and who was trying to box Sharon into a national referendum on the plan. Netanyahu was joined by the foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, and the education minister, Limor Livnat, who had been meeting together to try to force a referendum and avoid a coalition with the Labor Party.

Sharon believes a referendum would only delay the withdrawal from Gaza and he threatens to fire any minister who votes against him.

The religious right also opposed the plan, saying that it is a sin to pull Jews from their homes and that Gaza is part of the Land of Israel given to Jews by God. Sharon has full support from his formal opposition on the left, which sees Gaza disengagement as a vital first step towards a smaller Israel that can make peace with a Palestinian state.

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Asher Susser, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East Studies, thinks: ‘‘This is not about Gaza—this is the opening of a major debate about Israel’s soul.’’

—NYT