Gaza opposition sparks crackdown

JERUSALEM – Responding to death threats against government ministers, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered law enforcement agencies Sunday to crack down on Jewish extremists opposed to the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Cabinet ministers said the charged climate is reminiscent of the period before the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who was in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Extremists have put up posters across the country that say Rabin and the prime minister’s deceased wife are “waiting for Sharon.”

Despite the concerns, Sharon’s Cabinet approved a list of 500 Palestinian prisoners to be released in the coming days, and several hundred Palestinian workers were permitted to return to jobs in Israel in line with agreements reached at a Mideast summit last week.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, was to present a new Cabinet to his Fatah movement for approval Tuesday. Abbas was expected to appoint new interior, foreign and information ministers but keep many current government members, officials said.

In an interview for today’s edition of the New York Times, Abbas said the war with the Israelis is effectively over and that Sharon is speaking “a different language” to the Palestinians. Abbas spoke of persuading the radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to respect the truce he and Sharon announced last Tuesday at the highest-level meeting between Israelis and Palestinians in four years.