Jerusalem — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended his plan on Wednesday to dismantle virtually all Jewish settlements in Gaza, and there were new signs the proposal threatened the stability of his government.
Ten lawmakers from the ruling Likud Party sent a letter to Sharon threatening to abandon the Prime Minister if he moves forward with his plans without their consent.
“We announce beforehand that it will be very difficult for us to support this plan without the approval of the Likud institutions on this sensitive subject,” the legislators wrote. They added that they would not support the entry of the opposition Labour Party into the government.
A senior official said Mr. Sharon would put his unilateral disengagement plan — including removing some settlements and imposing a boundary on the West Bank if peace talks fail — before a national referendum, as demanded by Likud lawmakers.
Mr. Sharon welcomes a referendum because the issue cuts across ideological lines and “has overwhelming support among the public,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave strong backing Wednesday to Mr. Sharon's settlement plan, saying it could provide new momentum for Mideast peace.
“The withdrawal from Gaza that has been announced by the Prime Minister — if it does take place — can really give us a very important moment, a new dynamic that can propel the process forward,” Mr. Annan said.
Labour said Tuesday that it would back Mr. Sharon's plan, assuring him of a parliamentary majority even if two ultranationalist parties quit the government.
But one of the men who signed Wednesday's letter, Yuli Edelstein, said the group had enough support from other Likud members to block the proposal.
Even if the plan fails, the letter reflected the internal divisions that Mr. Sharon faces over Gaza.
Mr. Sharon has shrugged off the growing threats, saying he is determined to go ahead with plans to remove 17 settlements in Gaza and three in the West Bank without waiting for a peace deal with the Palestinians. He said he would try to form a new governing coalition rather than back down.
The surprise announcement on Monday divided Israelis into two camps: Those who believe that Mr. Sharon, for decades the main architect of Jewish settlement expansion, was truly changing course; and those who suspect him of trying to sow confusion and deflect attention from a widening corruption probe against him.
Mr. Sharon said Wednesday that his plan was not related to the corruption probe, Israel radio reported. Speaking to reporters at the Israeli parliament building, he said he was moving forward in spite of his legal troubles, not because of them. He also offered to take the plan to a national referendum.
Mr. Sharon, who has denied wrongdoing, is to be questioned by police on Thursday over his dealings with an Israeli real-estate developer.
Commentators said whatever Mr. Sharon's motives, his declaration has created irreversible facts, and no future prime minister could demand to hold on to parts of Gaza in a peace deal with the Palestinians.
“The words that were uttered can never be taken back,” commentator Dan Margalit wrote in the Maariv daily.
Opinion polls suggested that Mr. Sharon has broad public support for dismantling most Gaza settlements, increasingly seen by many Israelis as a security burden. Israel controls one-third of the strip, while 1.3 million Palestinians share the rest.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told Palestinian radio that he wants to see “deeds, not words. We want to see them leaving the whole Gaza Strip, leaving Gaza as liberated Palestinian land and leaving us to concentrate on their withdrawal from the West Bank.”
In the West Bank on Wednesday, the army said it had arrested a senior operative in the extremist al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the village of Tubas. Palestinian sources identified the man as Jihad Sawafta, who they said had escaped an Israeli assassination attempt in 2002.
Senior aides to Mr. Sharon and Mr. Qureia could not agree Wednesday on a date for the leaders' meeting. Mr. Sharon's office said another preparatory meeting would be held. A summit would be a crucial step in reviving the U.S.-backed plan to end violence, the so-called road map to peace.
The talks were to focus on Israel's contentious West Bank separation barrier — which the Palestinians oppose — and Palestinian efforts to persuade extremist groups to halt attacks on Israelis, Palestinian officials said.
