In
a slap in the face to Sharon, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Education Minister Limor Livnat,
heavyweights in the right-wing Likud, refused to campaign for the
plan, which they have only reluctantly backed, Reuters reported.
Likud
stalwarts have lent half-hearted support to the plan, a package of
unilateral steps including the removal of all Gaza settlements, a move
which runs contrary to the principles of Israel's main right-wing
nationalist party, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
Supporters
of the plan have remained conspicuously tight-lipped.
In
contrast, hardliners opposed to the withdrawal of Jewish settlements
are leaving no stone unturned as they frantically canvas the 200,000
Likud members ahead of the party's May 2 vote on the plan.
But
beyond the ideological debate over the disengagement plan, Likud is
torn by increased wrangling between aspiring successors jockeying for
position behind Sharon, who is already 76 and has been plagued by
corruption scandals, AFP said.
A
confidant predicted that Sharon, struggling to halt erosion in support
for his unilateral "disengagement" proposal ahead of next
Sunday's Likud referendum, would exact political revenge against those
who turned him down.
Polls
indicate approval of Sharon's plan, which calls for uprooting all
Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank, is far
from guaranteed by the traditionally pro-settler Likud. A survey
Friday showed 49 percent of the party's 200,000 members in favor and
39.5 percent against.
Defeat
in his own party would be a major blow to Sharon. But he has already
signaled he will present the plan to parliament -- where his chances
of success are greater -- even if he loses.
Following
a cabinet meeting Sunday, Sharon encouraged his main rival within
Likud, Netanyahu, to act on the hesitant support he has voiced for the
plan.
But
Netanyahu replied that he had already done his utmost by publicly
declaring his backing on April 18.
"I
have done more than enough," Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
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Sharon's plan could be killed by his own party
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Netanyahu,
considered more hawkish than Sharon, is seen as his likely successor
if the prime minister is toppled by brewing corruption scandals.
Sharon has denied wrongdoing.
Netanyahu,
Shalom and Livnat grudgingly lent their backing to Sharon's plan after
it received President Bush's blessing this month. But amid signs of
declining support, they have rejected Sharon's appeal to promote it
publicly.
"Their
motives are pretty transparent: they believe, at least some of them,
that Sharon is going to lose in the May 2 Likud referendum, and they
don't want their names linked to the fiasco," Haaretz
newspaper commentator Yossi Verter wrote.
"After
the polls showed that their public declarations of support for the
plan (hesitant, grumbling declarations) only undermined its chances to
win a majority among Likud members, they now don't want to put their
strength to the test.
"How
embarrassing it would be if, despite their "rallying" to the
cause, the polls still did not change. The "deal-making
ministers," is how one of their cabinet colleagues disparagingly
referred to the three yesterday. They cut a good deal for themselves,
he said. On the one hand, they support Sharon's plan, on the other
hand they oppose it," Verter wrote.
Within
the same context, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin launched an indirect
attack on Sharon Monday, acccording to Ha'aretz.
Rivlin,
who is opposed to Sharon’s plan, said that Israel “will continue
to hold on to the soil in this good land, even if a weariness is
emanating from the edges of the camp, and even if [the weariness] is
eroding the leadership of those who advocated the vision of the land
for years but have recently loosened their grip,” the paper added.
"Rivlin
also remains resolute in his decision to use his speech at Monday
evening's official Independence Day ceremony to praise the settlers,
despite criticism from proponents of the disengagement plan.
"The
proponents accused Rivlin, who opposes the plan, of exploiting the
occasion for political purposes."
