Sharon to draft new pullout plan; vote is called unlikely

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday that he will come up with an alternative withdrawal plan after his proposal to pull out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank was resoundingly rejected by members of his Likud Party.

Hours after Sharon spoke, an Israeli attack helicopter fired a missile at a group of armed Palestinians in Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp early today, killing two and wounding at least 17, residents and doctors said.

Israeli officials suggested the original plan - which had U.S. backing and was popular with Israelis - would be slightly scaled down and the new version would not be put to a Likud vote.

Sharon had proposed his "disengagement plan" as the best way to obtain security for Israel in the absence of peace moves and to defuse international pressure for greater concessions.

Members of Sharon's traditionally prosettler party disagreed, voting against the plan 60 percent to 40 percent in a nonbinding referendum Sunday that the Maariv daily labeled a "crushing defeat" for the premier.

Residents of the Gaza settlement of Neve Dekalim, who had energetically campaigned against the plan, symbolically declared victory Monday by laying the cornerstone for a new neighborhood. "It says we're here to stay," said Esther Lilienthal, 67.

But government officials scrambled Monday to figure out a way to sidestep the Likud voters and proceed with some form of withdrawal anyway, arguing that with peace efforts frozen and violence with the Palestinians continuing, Israel can't afford to sit back and do nothing.

Sharon said he would present his new plan to Parliament and to the Cabinet, but not to another party referendum.

"The Likud members said "no' to a specific plan, not to all plans," Cabinet minister Tzipi Livni said.

Sharon's original plan envisioned an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, home to 7,500 settlers in 21 settlements, and the evacuation of four small settlements in the West Bank by the end of 2005.

The prime minister's top aide, Dov Weisglass, spoke Monday with Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, to assure her that Sharon remained committed to carrying out the plan with only minor changes, government sources said.

Last month, Bush tried to boost Sharon's chances in the referendum, endorsing the plan and giving him unprecedented assurances that in a final peace deal, Israel would not have to withdraw from all the West Bank.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the vote was a setback for Sharon. He said the disengagement plan could still be a way to move peace talks forward, but added, "I don't think we've hitched our wagon to any single effort."

The Israeli military refused to comment on the violence early today in Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp. But residents who saw the attack said Palestinian gunmen targeted by the helicopter fired two missiles at Israeli tanks before the helicopter struck. Residents said one of the two dead as a 25-year-old Palestinian gunman.

Also today, Israeli troops took up positions around Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's office building in the West Bank city of Ramallah, witnesses said.

Israeli military officials said soldiers were arresting suspects, but the operation was not linked to Arafat's office.

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