Sharon braces for showdown

2005-04-04 15:23

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was preparing for showdown talks with settlers on Monday over his plans to uproot them from the Gaza Strip as his top lieutenants prepared the groundwork for next week's summit with US President George W Bush.

Senior representatives of the Gush Katif settlement bloc, the home to the vast majority of the 8 000 Gaza settlers, were expected to push for yet more compensation at the meeting on Tuesday even though the government has already set aside nearly one billion dollars.

A report in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily said the settlers would even demand that the package be doubled in an apparent recognition that their fate is effectively sealed.

"It would be irresponsible on our part to be obtuse and disregard reality," one of the settler leaders who was to take part in the meeting with Sharon told the paper.

"There is no contradiction between a legitimate civic struggle against disengagement and concern for the day after, but we must take into account (the possibility) that the disengagement plan will be implemented."

Sharon, the settlers' one-time champion, has transformed himself into their bete noire by forging ahead with the plan to pull all 8 000 of the Jewish residents of Gaza out of the occupied Palestinian territory by September.

A round of talks with the main Yesha settlers' council back in October ended with accusations that the prime minister was dragging the country to civil war.

Tuesday's meeting is the first between Sharon and the leaders of the Gaza settlements and is being billed as reconciliation meeting.

Domestic opposition

Sharon is expected to tell the settler leaders that he appreciates the pain of being evacuated from their homes but appears unlikely to bend to the calls for more compensation having just won approval for the state budget.

In a bid to bolster himself against domestic opposition to the withdrawal from Gaza, Sharon has enlisted the support of Bush, who has effectively endorsed the Israeli premier's strategy to keep control of large West Bank settlement blocs.

The two leaders are expected to meet at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in a week's time with the talks dominated by the disengagement plan.

As part of the preparations for the summit, Sharon's top advisor Dov Weisglass has already travelled to Washington and his number two in government, Shimon Peres, was also heading to the States Monday.

Peres told public radio he expected to meet with both vice-president Dick Cheney and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to discuss plans to develop relatively sparsely populated areas of Israel as the government seeks to persuade the Gaza settlers to relocate voluntarily.

"I am going to speak about the disengagement plan and the development of the Negev and the Galilee," he said.

- AFP