ISRAEL: Israel's former finance minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, yesterday called on parliament to halt the pull-out from Gaza. "Only we in the Knesset are able to stop this evil. Everything that the Knesset has decided, it is also capable of changing," he stated.
Mr Netanyahu, who resigned his post last weekend in protest against the withdrawal, urged the Knesset to act quickly: "I am calling on all [ members] to grasp the danger, gather strength and do the right thing. I don't know if the entire move can be stopped, but it still might be stopped in its initial stages."
He also expressed his strong opposition to the handover of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. He said Israel "must not give the Palestinians guns and rockets, a sea port and a huge base for terror".
He launched his appeal from a position of strength a few hours after the liberal daily Haaretz published the results of its latest opinion poll showing that Mr Netanyahu would defeat Prime Minister Ariel Sharon if an elec- tion for the leadership of the right-wing Likud party was to be held now. The poll was conducted 24 hours after Mr Netanyahu tendered his resignation.
Surveys taken over the past year have shown Mr Sharon would beat Mr Netanyahu, his nearest rival. But in the immediate aftermath of his resigna- tion, the poll showed that in a three-way race, Mr Netanyahu would win 35 per cent of the vote, Mr Sharon 29 per cent, and the third candidate, Uzi Landau, another vehement opponent of the withdrawal from Gaza, would secure 17 per cent.
Mr Netanyahu is only five points away from winning the 40 per cent of Likud party members needed to win in the first round. If Mr Landau were to drop out, most of his backers would be likely to switch to Mr Netan-yahu, giving him 47 per cent against 33 per cent for Mr Sharon.
A majority of Likud members consider Mr Sharon's unilateral "disengagement" plan as "withdrawal under fire" and complain that Israel is not receiving anything from the Palestinians in return. A dozen Likud legislators rebelled against Mr Sharon's policy forcing him to form a coalition with the centre-right Labour party, which supports the evacuation of the Gaza Strip.
If Mr Sharon does not regain his position after the evacuation is completed, analysts say he may consider splitting the Likud and uniting his faction with Labour, which has been in serious disarray for several years, and the Shinui party, which opposes a role for religion in politics.
Haim Ramon, a Labour minister in the current government, has been urging such a policy for some time. But Mr Ramon, a liberal Labourite who favours with- drawal from the West Bank as well as Gaza, is not a leading figure in his own party. The present Labour chairman, Shimon Peres, and his rival, Ehud Barak, would have no interest in forming a new party with Likud.
Furthermore, if Likud were to split, Mr Netanyahu's faction could be expected to attempt amalgamation with other nationalist and religious right-wing parties, thereby increasing its political base.
Mr Sharon may be down in the polls but overnight his cabinet voted in favour of the state budget for the 2006 tax year. It had been feared that the government could face defeat on this issue. Twelve ministers voted in favour, eight against, of whom seven were from Labour and one from Likud.
Labour opposes the budget because it does not provide large enough sums for alleviating poverty. Likud Minister of Agriculture Israel Katz, a vehement critic of Mr Sharon's evacuation plan, voted against with the aim of bringing down the coalition. The budget must pass three readings in the Knesset before December if it is to be adopted.