Israel must quit Gaza to stay Jewish

"We will not be able to preserve the Jewish and democratic character of the state if we continue to rule over one million Palestinians" in the Gaza Strip, Sharon told students at Israel's Academy of War late Thursday.

The argument is the strongest put forward yet by the hawkish, right-wing prime minister for his plan to evacuate troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip by the end of 2005.

"We can't ignore (Israel's) demographic concerns," Sharon said, in reference to the Palestinians' higher birthrate.

According to official projections, by 2010 Israel's 5.2 million-strong Jewish population will be overtaken by that of the West Bank and Gaza, together home to more than three million Palestinians, and the Jewish state's own Arab citizens.

Sharon also stressed that Israel must give up the Gaza Strip to consolidate its presence in settlements on the West Bank.

The premier won his government's formal backing last month to dismantle all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and another four in the northern West Bank.

Sharon, however, lost the government's parliamentary majority after he fired two ministers opposed to the Gaza pullout, and a third left his government in protest at the plan.

The planned withdrawal will uproot some 7,500 Gaza settlers and no more than 400 from the 220,000-strong West Bank settler population.

"Whomever believes that we can hold on to Netzarim (south of Gaza City) and Maale Adumim (on the West Bank, east of Jerusalem) will end up losing both," Sharon warned.

Israel's media noted Friday that Sharon's new argument for evacuating Gaza is typically used by the center-left opposition Labor party which the premier recently invited to form a national union government.

Labor officials nevertheless expressed impatience with Sharon's handling of negotiations concerning their participation in a new government.

They protested Friday the subsequent invitations the premier had extended to two small ultra-religious parties instead of reaching an agreement with Labor first.

"Sharon is making a joke out of the Labor party," MP Ofer Pines told the English-language Jerusalem Post.

"If Sharon wants Labor, the Likud negotiating team should meet first with Labor and reach guidelines on a new coalition that can be used as the basis for bringing in other factions," he said.

Meanwhile, Israel braced for a tough battle at the UN General Assembly which was set Friday to start debating a resolution after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) condemnation of the West Bank barrier.

"We will have to wage a very tough battle when faced by the immoral majority that Muslim and Arab countries as well as several other undemocratic states enjoy at the General Assembly," Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, told state radio.