Sharon demands Palestinians ‘wage a real war on terror’
He reaffirmed his bedrock position after postponing a showdown with far-right members of his own Likud party still fuming over Israel’s Gaza pullout and threatening to derail new cabinet appointments.
“The demand for the Palestinians to wage a real war on terror cannot be circumvented,” Mr Sharon said in a “state of the nation” address opening the Knesset’s winter session after a week in which bloodshed surged on the Israel-Gaza border.
“The international community is united in its demand the Palestinian Authority carry out all its commitments, primarily the disarming of terrorist organisations and preventing attacks against Israel,” he said.
Such action, Mr Sharon said, was “the only way to get back on the route of negotiations” under a US-backed peace “road map” leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who along with Mr Sharon declared a ceasefire in February, has urged militants not to carry weapons in public but has resisted US and
Israeli calls to disarm them, citing fears of civil war.
While reaffirming Israel’s commitment to the road map, Mr Sharon has made clear he has no intention of giving up major settlement blocs in the West Bank, which house many times more settlers than those in the Gaza Strip.
Shortly before the speech, Mr Sharon said he would delay for a week a parliamentary vote to approve the nomination of Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as finance minister and cabinet posts for two other political allies who supported the Gaza pullout.
Likud members who opposed the withdrawal, saying it would encourage Palestinian attacks, had threatened to vote against the nominations in parliament on Monday, potentially embarrassing Mr Sharon or even pushing him toward early elections.
In violence on Sunday, Israeli troops killed three Islamic Jihad militants in the West Bank, the army said, hours after the organisation agreed to halt rocket attacks from Gaza, which Israel quit last month.
Islamic Jihad killed five Israelis in a suicide bombing last Wednesday and its rocket attacks provoked Israeli air strikes that killed nine Palestinians, mostly gunmen. Islamic Jihad said it reserved the right to avenge the latest killings.
Mr Sharon told parliament that Israel also faced regional threats, citing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remark last week that Israel should be “wiped off the map.”
Mr Ahmadinejad’s comments, which drew international condemnation, “expressed what many in the region desire but are afraid to say publicly,” Mr Sharon said.
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