The Israeli government has approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan but hedged its historic decision by putting off any vote on dismantling Jewish settlements for at least nine months.
Sharon's last-minute compromise with rebellious hardline ministers watered down his four-stage "disengagement" proposal enough to win his cabinet's support in principle on Sunday, possibly staving off the collapse of his coalition government.
But by mandating future cabinet votes for each phase of the pullout, it leaves the fate of Gaza's 21 settlements and four in the West Bank -- slated for evacuation by the end of 2005 -- mired in uncertainty.
Ministers voted 14-7 for the plan, which would mark the first time Israel has removed settlements built in the West Bank or Gaza Strip, lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
But obstacles built into the new framework mark a climbdown by Sharon, whose original plan -- backed by Washington and most Israelis but rejected in a May 2 referendum of his rightist Likud party -- called for withdrawing from Gaza all at once.
"Most of the people of Israel understand the tremendous significance of the plan," Sharon told a gathering of young Jews from the United States and other countries.
"It...is good for Israel's political standing, economy and the demography of the Jewish people in the land of Israel."
The pro-settler National Religious Party (NRP), whose threatened departure from the ruling coalition would strip Sharon of his parliamentary majority and bring down his government, planned to decide after the vote whether to bolt.
Such a move now seemed less imminent, though Sharon may just have bought time before the next political crisis.
The plan, billed by Sharon as a unilateral effort to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians, also declared Israel's intent to keep a permanent hold on swathes of West Bank land where most of its 240,000 settlers live in 120 enclaves.