Sharon under fire for separation plan

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon drew fire from many sides yesterday but the United States backtracked on his threat to unilaterally separate Israelis from Palestinians if peace talks fail.

US President George Bush’s spokesman performed a U-turn yesterday, reacting warmly to much of Sharon’s latest prescription for dealing with the Palestinians.

“We were very pleased with the overall speech,” said Scott McClellan in an apparent effort to offset published accounts that focused on his admonition on Thursday night that Sharon should not try to impose a settlement without negotiations.

Mr McClellan criticised Mr Sharon for considering one-sided measures, advised Israel not to try to dictate terms of a settlement.

The plan would deny Palestinians land they want for a State and keep them behind a controversial barrier through the West Bank, but would also involve shifting Jewish settlers away from Palestinian population centres to shorten security lines.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, a moderate, said he was disappointed with Sharon’s “threat” and urged negotiations. A meeting between the two has been in the pipeline for weeks.

Mr Sharon said Israel would take steps such as transferring towns to Palestinian security control and opening roadblocks that hamper Palestinian movement to further the roadmap peace plan in the coming weeks.

But he warned Palestinians that they must “uproot terrorist groups” within months if they did not want Israel to impose a plan to retain control over many Jewish settlements and leave Palestinians with less than they would obtain through talks.

Mr Sharon set no timetable for acting on his unilateral separation plan. The ambiguity left the Israeli political landscape unchanged and many Israelis sceptical anything would come of the speech.

“He put on a good show, he sounded serious ... and yet, if you look at it squarely, we didn’t get anything,” wrote Sima Kadmon in Yediot Ahronoth, Israel’s biggest daily. Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres blasted Mr Sharon’s plan to halt contacts with Palestinians, saying it would make the roadmap impossible.

At the other end of the political spectrum, settlers said they would refuse to evacuate. “Uprooting us or kicking us out of here won’t bring peace. We will remain here to the end.,” said 29-year-old Itai Harel at the Migron settlement, a windswept hilltop cluster of trailer-homes in the West Bank.

Mr Sharon said that whatever the case, work would be speeded on the huge barrier that Israel is building through the West Bank.

Palestinians call the obstacle of wire and concrete an attempt to annex land. Islamic factions said they could see no suggestion that the plan would bring peace. “Resistance will continue until we regain full rights and land,” said senior Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi.