ARIEL SHARON, the Israeli Prime Minister, buoyed by a ringing parliamentary victory on his Gaza pullout plan, will defy demands from dissidents within his own Cabinet for a referendum on the issue.

Four rebels from Mr Sharon’s Likud party, including his arch political foe, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Finance Minister, are threatening to resign within two weeks unless the Prime Minister holds a national poll on the plan to remove Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

However, as Mr Sharon won plaudits for his steadfastness in the face of last-minute brinkmanship by the rebels, who belatedly voted with the Government after it had secured a Knesset majority, he signalled his determination to face them down a second time.

“I will never give in to pressures and threats and not accept any ultimatums,” he said. “My position to the referendum is unchanged: I am opposed because it will lead to tensions and a rupture in the public,” he told the Haaretz newspaper. He sees calls for a referendum as a ploy in mere delaying tactics, since repeatedly opinion polls show that two out of three Israelis support the withdrawal.

Mr Sharon is ready to bulldoze his plan through with the aid of opposition parties from the Left in a move that he believes could pave the way towards peace with the Palestinians and cement Israel’s grip on larger West Bank settlements.

“Mr Sharon is emerging as an Israeli Churchillian figure,” Yaron Ezrahi, a political analyst at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said. “He is a leader who in a moment of truth realised that his life enterprise (to construct Jewish settlements) had become destructive to the country.”

Yet the dismantling of all twenty-one Gaza settlements and four in the West Bank could yet force Mr Sharon to seek new partners for his coalition Government. The National Religious Party, which voted against the Government, has threatened to leave the coalition if its demand for a referendum is not met.

The departure of the four Likud rebels could force Mr Sharon to hold fresh elections. If that were the case, the moderate wing of his party would be likely to form an electoral pact with Labour and the secular Shinui party, causing a significant realignment of Israeli politics.

With Labour’s backing, Mr Sharon can still win a majority in the Knesset on a compensation package for settlers driven from their homes. He vowed that the measures on the mechanics of the disengagement would not be put before the Knesset as they needed only Cabinet approval.

Even the loss of two Likud ministers, Uzi Landau and Michael Ratzon, who were dismissed for voting against the Government, should not endanger its passage as moves are under way to replace them.

Analysts also questioned if Mr Netanyahu and his fellow Cabinet rebels — Limor Livnat, Danny Naveh and Yisrael Katz — would carry through their threat to leave.

“Undoubtedly Mr Netanyahu embarrassed himself,” Mark Heller, a political analyst at Tel Aviv’s Jaffee Centre think-tank, said. “But I don’t believe that Mr Sharon will buckle. So it’s not inconceivable that in two weeks these people, who are pretty creative politicians, will find a way to turn their unconditional ultimatum into something conditional.”

Explore World News

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Karadzic found freedom in the Madhouse
• Bears kill guards at Russian mine
• Hotel is a monument to new North Korea