Sharon rejects Gaza referendum

Sharon's unprecedented plan for giving up Jewish enclaves on territory occupied since the 1967 war has drawn death threats and warnings of civil war while splitting the ruling Likud party and throwing the political landscape into turmoil.

In a rebellion after parliament passed the US-backed Gaza plan Tuesday, Sharon's chief Likud rival Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three other ministers vowed to resign in two weeks if no referendum was set.

"I will never give in to pressures and threats and not accept any ultimatums," Sharon told Haaretz newspaper. "My position on the referendum is unchanged -- I am opposed because it will lead to terrible tensions and a rupture in the public."

Sharon fears that a referendum could delay the start of the withdrawal of troops and settlers from Gaza and four of the 120 settlements in the West Bank, slated to begin after another cabinet vote next March.

But the loss of Netanyahu and the others could make it hard for Sharon to avoid a leadership challenge or new elections.

Netanyahu, a former prime minister, is also hailed by markets as the architect of economic reforms. Fears that he could quit knocked the shekel Wednesday and key share indexes fell more than one percent.

"We still cannot rule a referendum out totally. This is politics," said one Sharon confidant.

A poll published Wednesday said half of Israelis favored a referendum. If one were held, 59 percent would vote to quit Gaza and 28 percent would vote against it, the Maariv newspaper said.

Most Israelis see the cost in blood and money as too high for keeping 8,000 Jews in fortified settlements alongside 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

But nationalist hard-liners, who once saw Sharon as the settlers' godfather, now revile him for being ready to give up land they see as a biblical heritage to Palestinians waging a 4-year-old uprising.