ISRAEL: Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon leaves for the US today certain of winning President Bush's backing for his disengagement plan from Gaza, but far less sure of winning the backing of his own Likud party.
Mr Sharon said yesterday his envisaged unilateral withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip and a small portion of the West Bank offers Israel "gains on all fronts", including the opportunity to act "without any limitations against terrorism".
After their White House meeting on Wednesday, President Bush is expected to publicly endorse the pull-out, to be effected over the coming year, and to give Mr Sharon a written guarantee that Israel will not have to withdraw from the entire West Bank under a permanent peace accord with the Palestinians, and that Palestinian refugees, rather than returning to Israel, will make their homes in a new sovereign Palestine.
The US letter will reportedly refer to "demographic realities" in the West Bank - presumably justifying Israel's maintenance of some settlements there.
But Palestinian leaders say they fear Mr Sharon intends only to give up Gaza, and to try and maintain a hold over most of the West Bank for the foreseeable future - with US backing. "This is the worst American political position since 1967," said the former Palestinian Authority Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo yesterday. "We will reject it. It replaces the [internationally backed] road map [peace framework] with the Sharon plan."
Mr Abed-Rabbo was one of the initiators of the unofficial Geneva peace accord, drafted last year by Israeli and Palestinian moderates, which prescribes a complete Israeli pull-out from the West Bank.
Mr Sharon's Likud is deeply split over disengagement. Likud officials yesterday set April 29th as the date for a referendum on the issue, in which all 200,000 party members will be eligible to participate. The prime minister, who has pledged to be bound by the party vote, believes Mr Bush's endorsement will help secure his own party's backing.