Sharon struggles to keep coalition intact

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon struggled to keep his fragile coalition intact today after the Cabinet approved his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip by 2005.

Sharon declared victory after yesterday’s 14-7 vote, even though implementation is months away.

The ministers only approved a withdrawal in principle, delaying a vote on the removal of Israeli settlements until March.

The wording of the decision was sufficiently vague to defer a major political crisis, but did not resolve the deep divisions within Sharon’s centre-right coalition over the dismantling of settlements.

Sharon’s brittle coalition faced an immediate test today, with parliament to vote on several motions

of no confidence.

On paper, Sharon’s coalition still controls 61 seats in the 120-member parliament. However, disgruntled MPs from the National Religious Party (NRP), a pro-settler faction in the coalition, and from Sharon’s own Likud Party, said they might vote against the prime minister or abstain.

Sharon was expected to survive the votes since his opponents are unlikely to muster the 61 votes required to bring down a prime minister. However, his situation remains tenuous.

Under Sharon’s disengagement plan, Israel will uproot all 21 settlements in Gaza and four West Bank settlements by the end of 2005.

Sharon says a withdrawal boosts Israeli security and helps cement control of large blocs of West Bank settlements, where most settlers live.

“Disengagement has begun,” a beaming Sharon said after the Cabinet vote. “The government decided today that by the end of 2005, Israel will leave Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank.”