BINYAMIN NETANYAHU resigned from Israel’s Government yesterday in protest at Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from Gaza.

The Finance Minister timed his move for maximum effect, pulling the rug from under the Prime Minister and their Likud Party a week before the withdrawal begins. With elections likely early next year, analysts believe Mr Netanyahu, a former Prime Minister, will seek to wrest control of Likud from the 77-year-old Mr Sharon, supplanting him as the standard-bearer of the Right.

Last night Mr Sharon named his closest Cabinet ally, Ehud Olmert, as caretaker Finance Minister. Despite Mr Netanyahu’s walkout, the Cabinet easily passed a vote authorising the evacuation of three Gaza settlements, by 17-5.

Explaining his resignation, the hawkish Mr Netanyahu, 55, said he had wanted to continue with economic reform but was implacably opposed to the unilateral withdrawal of 9,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. “There comes a moment of truth when a leader should ask himself ‘What do you represent? What do you fight for?’,” he said.

“I can’t be part of a move that I think compromises the security of Israel, tears the people apart and enshrines the principle of withdrawal to the indefensible 1967 (pre-Six Day War) lines and that I think in future will risk the unity of Jerusalem.”

In a 20-minute address in Jerusalem that doubled as a resignation speech and election manifesto, the Harvard-educated “Bibi” conspicuously avoided any mention of Mr Sharon.

Sidestepping claims that he was putting his personal ambitions ahead of the national interest, he focused on the narrow specifics of security concerns about the Gaza evacuation. He feared Gaza would “become an Islamic terror base that will endanger not only Israel but others in the world”.

Few expect Mr Netanyahu to disrupt or reverse the disengagement. Instead he will use his freedom to campaign for the Prime Ministership.

Likud activists are furious at Mr Sharon for “selling out” to the Palestinians by giving them Gaza with nothing in return. Professor Gerald Steinberg, of Bar Ilan University, said that Mr Netanyahu would now try to wrest control of Likud from his rival, calculating that, with the Left in disarray, if he wins the Right, he wins the country.

HAWK'S FLIGHT

1949 born in Tel Aviv

1967-73 serves as soldier and commando captain in Israeli Army

1981 secures role in Israeli Embassy in Washington

1984 becomes Israeli Ambassador to the UN

1988 enters Knesset as member of the Likud party and is appointed Deputy Foreign Minister

1996 becomes Prime Minister, the first leader to be born after the creation of the Jewish state

1999 loses election after going to the polls 17 months early

2002-03 Foreign Minister

Feb 2003-Aug 2005 Finance Minister

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