Rightwing Israelis make a plan

2003-11-25 12:37

Jerusalem - Israel's right wing hit back on Tuesday with its own alternative peace plan which rules out the creation of a Palestinian state or dismantling any settlements, after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned there was no alternative to land for peace.

Following on the heels of the internationally-backed "roadmap" peace plan and the "Geneva Initiative" which is being officially launched next Monday, the latest blueprint drawn up by rightwing MPs and settlers' groups rejects the principle of trading land for peace.

Ben Tzvi Lieberman of the Settlers' Council, said that an alternative plan was needed as the roadmap and Geneva plans were "very bad solutions".

The plan would involve "the eradication of terrorism, the abandonment of the principle of peace in exchange for land, autonomous administration for the Arabs and a final regional accord which would exclude the creation of a Palestinian state or the dismantling of settlements," Lieberman told public radio.

Settler sources told reporters that the plan had been drawn up by rightwing members of parliament, including some from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's own Likud party, and settler leaders.

Sharon, who has said he is considering "unilateral" measures towards the Palestinians, was reported on Tuesday to have received a tough time at the hands of his own MPs when he tried to convince them that there was no alternative to the land for peace principle.

The sources said that the plan would also see an expanded State of Israel, encompassing both the West Bank and Gaza Strip occupied in 1967, divided into 10 separate cantons -- two of which would be Palestinian.

With figures indicating that the Palestinian population could outstrip the Jewish population in little more than a decade, the canton arrangement would guarantee a Jewish majority in parliament. The prime minister would have to be Jewish although the deputy premier could be an Arab.

Lieberman also announced that the Settlers' Council was launching a campaign against any plans by Sharon to dismantle isolated settlements in the West Bank or in Gaza, such as the controversial Netzarim settlement.

Sharon was quoted by the Maariv daily as telling his own MPs on Monday that "there is no other choice ... to painful concessions."

"We must not keep three and a half million Arabs under us. Let it be clear, we will not be in all the places we are now. That is the situation. We have to understand it."

Likud MP Michael Gorolovsky accused Sharon of planning "to carry out a transfer of Jews."

Lieberman said that Sharon was endangering his own majority in parliament.

"The prime minister must understand in time that if he expels Jews from their houses, he will no longer have a majority in his government or in parliament," said Lieberman.

- AFP