Sharon holds on after Gaza plan blow

ISRAEL’S Prime Minister Ariel Sharon easily survived a no-confidence vote in parliament yesterday, a day after his right-wing Likud party overwhelmingly rejected his Gaza pull-out plan.

Leftist and Arab parties, apparently trying to capitalise on Mr Sharon’s political troubles, had presented the no-confidence motion over what they called the government’s “failure socio-economically and diplomatically”.

Mr Sharon yesterday said he would amend his Gaza withdrawal plan to win over his right-wing party after it overwhelmingly rejected the US-backed initiative in a referendum.