Sharon won’t accept vote on leaving Gaza

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday rejected calls from Jewish settlers to hold a nationwide referendum on his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, escalating an increasingly bitter dispute with former allies who now accuse him of leading Israel toward civil war.

Sunday’s stormy meeting left the two sides deeply at odds as Sharon prepares to present his plan for a parliamentary vote. Sharon, who spent the first three decades of his political career building settlements, now wants to pull out of the entire Gaza Strip and uproot four West Bank settlements next year.

Sharon says his plan will increase Israel’s security after four years of fighting the Palestinians and will help consolidate control over large chunks of the West Bank. Palestinians charge that the real purpose of Sharon’s plan is a West Bank land grab.

The settlers, once Sharon’s most ardent supporters, accuse him of caving in to Palestinian violence and maintain that any dismantling of settlements is a dangerous precedent.

Settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein called Sunday’s meeting “shameful.”

“We did not get anything out of him. Nothing. Zero,” he said. “The prime minister is not interested at all in our views.”

The settlers, as well as hard-line allies within Sharon’s government, have been pushing the prime minister to hold a national referendum on the withdrawal.

Although opinion polls show a solid majority of Israelis supporting the plan, Sharon opposes a referendum as a delaying tactic by opponents. Legal experts say it could take months to hold a vote.