Israel court shaves year from Sharon's term

JERUSALEM - Israel's Supreme Court on Tuesday shortened Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's term by a year in an election ruling that could further weaken his minority government and complicate a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The court said that elections must be held by November 2006 and that the original November 2007 date was based on a mistaken interpretation of the electoral law.

Israel's police minister, meanwhile, delivered the starkest warning yet about violence over the Gaza pullback, saying he believes Jewish extremists are plotting to assassinate leading politicians to stop the dismantling of settlements.

"They (extremists) will assassinate the prime minister, a minister, an army official or a police official," Tsahi Hanegbi, the police minister, told Israel TV's Channel Two. "They don't always succeed and they don't always have the means to carry out the acts. But we are not lacking extremists."

The threat of such violence strikes a deep chord in Israel. Many politicians and security officials still blame themselves for ignoring the warning signs ahead of the 1995 assassination of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an ultranationalist Jew.

Tuesday's high court ruling on the election date added to growing political uncertainty. Last month, Sharon lost his parliamentary majority over the Gaza withdrawal plan, with hardliners quitting or getting fired from the coalition.

Commentators said early elections are likely in coming months unless Sharon manages to stabilize his coalition by bringing in the opposition Labor Party.

Also Tuesday, two Palestinian gunmen, two Palestinian civilians and an Israeli officer were killed in a refugee camp on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus.

The incident began when soldiers cornered two local leaders of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, a violent PLO faction, and an Israeli officer and a Palestinian gunman were killed in the initial exchange of fire, said an army spokeswoman, Maj. Sharon Feingold.

TEL AVIV, Israel - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Tuesday he had no "magic wand" to persuade the Jewish state to at least tacitly acknowledge it has atomic bombs or the means to make them.

Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, came to Israel to pitch for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons. But ElBaradei said he had low expectations of getting Israel - widely believed to have a considerable nuclear arsenal - to stray from its secretive nuclear policy.

Israel does not comment on its nuclear capabilities, and its leaders have said they see no reason to change that policy.

On Tuesday, Israel Army Radio rebroadcast May comments by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which he said he would not change the country's policy.

"I don't know what he (ElBaradei) is coming to see," Sharon said. "Our nuclear policy has proven itself and will continue."

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