Israel 'heading for civil war' over Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected calls from Jewish settlers to hold a nationwide referendum on his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, escalating an increasingly bitter dispute between the onetime allies.

The stormy meeting left the two sides deeply at odds as Sharon prepares to present his plan for a parliamentary vote. Settlers charged that he is leading the country toward civil war.

Sharon, who spent the first three decades of his political career building settlements, now wants to pull out of the entire Gaza Strip and uproot four West Bank settlements next year.

Sharon says his plan will increase Israel’s security after four years of fighting with the Palestinians and help consolidate control over large chunks of the West Bank. Palestinians charge that the real idea behind Sharon’s plan is a West Bank land grab.

The settlers, once Sharon’s most ardent supporters, accuse him of caving in to Palestinian violence, maintaining that any dismantling of settlements is a dangerous precedent.

Pinchas Wallerstein, a settler leader, called Sunday’s meeting “shameful”.

“We did not get anything out of him, nothing , zero,” he said. “The prime minister is not interested at all in our views.”

The settlers, as well as hard-line allies within Sharon’s government, have been pushing the prime minister to hold a national referendum on the withdrawal.

Although opinion polls show a solid majority of Israelis supporting the plan, Sharon opposes a referendum as a delaying tactic by his opponents. Legal experts say the process for holding the vote could take months.

Current polls show about two-thirds of the people support his plan, despite large, well-funded and publicised protests by the settlers and their backers.

Sharon has already lost two separate votes on his plan – both in his Likud Party – following intense campaigning by the settlers.

Instead, Sharon has pledged to put his disengagement plan to a parliamentary vote on October 25.

Despite the rift in the Likud, Sharon is expected to prevail with the backing of dovish opposition parties.

Sharon told the settlers that he understands their anguish but pledged to push forward with his plan, according to participants.

Sharon said he was especially concerned by a recent call by an influential rabbi for Orthodox Jewish soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate the settlements. Dozens of lower-ranking rabbis have signed on to the call.