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Sharon fends off challenge

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon votes Monday in the Likud committee meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel.

TEL AVIV, Israel - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon survived a major challenge to his leadership in the party he helped found, narrowly claiming victory Monday in a vote widely seen as a referendum on his rule and the recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The victory capped a dramatic comeback for Sharon, who has been vilified by Likud Party hard-liners for the Gaza pullout and who had been trailing in recent opinion polls. Sharon's supporters said the victory meant the prime minister would push forward with his peace efforts.

"The argument over whether or not Sharon's vision was the Likud's vision is over with this vote," Roni Bar-On, a pro-Sharon lawmaker, told Israel Radio.

Monday's vote by the 3,000-member Likud central committee was ostensibly over a procedural issue: whether to hold elections for party leader in April, as scheduled, or move up the primary to November. But Sharon and his main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the ballot amounted to a vote of confidence in the prime minister.

Netanyahu, who accused Sharon of abandoning the hawkish Likud Party's nationalist roots by carrying out the withdrawal, pushed for an early primary to capitalize on anger against the prime minister. Sharon opposed any change.

Likud members voted 1,433 to 1,329 - a margin of 104 - in favor of keeping the schedule intact, according to official results announced just after midnight. Turnout was 91 percent.

Netanyahu, a former prime minister, conceded defeat Monday but said he would continue his campaign to oust Sharon. He said the close vote showed that the party remains bitterly divided, with many members opposed to Sharon's concessions to the Palestinians.

Sharon did not immediately react to the vote. As he cast his ballot earlier Monday, he warned that the early elections proposal would "badly harm the Likud."

Sharon confidants said that with a defeat, he likely would have quit Likud and competed in general elections as the head of a new centrist party. Such a run by Sharon, who is popular among the Israeli public, would strengthen the political center, push Likud to the fringe and likely improve chances of a Mideast peace deal.

Sharon has expressed hope that the Gaza withdrawal could lead to a resumption of peace talks, and he has voiced support for an independent Palestinian state.

The prime minister is still expected to face a tough challenge from Netanyahu in the party primary. And his junior coalition partner, the centrist Labor Party, has hinted at leaving the government and forcing early general elections if peace efforts stall. Elections are currently scheduled in November 2006.

Israel continued a wide-ranging offensive launched over the weekend against militants across Gaza and the West Bank in response to rocket attacks. An Israeli missile blew up a small bridge in Gaza today, Palestinian officials said. There were no reports of injuries. Monday, Israeli aircraft attacked suspected weapons factories around Gaza City and the southern Gaza towns of Rafah and Khan Younis. Israeli aircraft also fired missiles Monday at an empty field militants used to launch rockets at Israel, in a strike meant to deter further attacks, the military said. No injuries were reported in those strikes.

On Monday, militants launched two mortar shells into southern Israel, but the army said there were no injuries or damage.

[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]