Jordan Times
Monday, August 8, 2005
Rebuilding Palestinian
economy after pullout priority — King
Netanyahu quits as government approves evacuations
Agencies
His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday said improving the Palestinians' living
conditions and rebuilding their economy after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza
should top the international community's priorities.
King Abdullah told Quartet Special Envoy for Gaza
Disengagement James Wolfensohn at a meeting in Aqaba that helping the
Palestinian Authority (PA) control the Strip was a must, the Jordan News Agency,
Petra, reported.
Wolfensohn, a former World Bank president, represents the Quartet of Middle East
peace mediators — the UN, US, Russia and the EU — and has been holding extensive
talks with Israel and the PA.
Last week, the King held talks in Jordan with Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas and Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz on the pullout, scheduled to
begin in around two weeks.
Wolfensohn recently visited the Palestinian territories and Israel, following up
on a $3 billion financial aid package pledged to the PA by G-8 nations at their
July summit.
Netanyahu quits
Meanwhile, Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned in protest on
Sunday as the Cabinet approved the first phase of evacuations from settlements
in the occupied Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.
The resignation of Netanyahu, Sharon's main rival in the right-wing Likud Party,
sent local markets reeling and showed the depth of division in the Cabinet over
the plan for "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians.
But the departure of the highest-ranking minister yet to go over the pullout was
too late to prevent approval for the forced evacuations of settlers, due to
start after Aug. 15.
The Cabinet voted by 17 to five to back the first phase of the initiative —
removal of the settlements of Kfar Darom, Netzarim and Morag, isolated enclaves
where resistance is likely to be among the strongest.
Netanyahu said his resignation letter counted as a vote against the pullout plan
and told reporters that the plan would harm Israeli security and could intensify
Palestinian attacks.
"I did not expect my leaving the government would stop the unilateral move,"
Reuters quoted Netanyahu as saying. "I understand the ambition to leave Gaza. I
can't be part of a move that I believe is wrong, a move that will endanger
security and divide the people."
Sharon later named Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as the new finance minister.
Olmert, a long-time Sharon ally, has long supported the pullout plan.
Right-wing opponents see the withdrawal as a capitulation to a Palestinian
uprising, as well as setting a precedent for ceding land captured in the 1967
war, which also includes the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.
The hawkish Netanyahu had long opposed removing all 21 settlements in the Gaza
Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank despite the fact that it has the support
of most Israelis.
Markets fall
Israel's blue-chip stock index closed 5.2 per cent lower on news of the
departure of Netanyahu, who made himself a darling of business for cutting taxes
and social benefits as well as other reforms that helped lift Israel out of
recession.
Markets nonetheless favour the withdrawal, the first time Israel would remove
settlements from land where Palestinians want a state and touted by Washington
as a possible step to reviving talks on a "roadmap" for peace in the Middle
East.
Sharon's office said economic policies would not change as a result of
Netanyahu's resignation.
The Yesha settler council commended him "for showing national responsibility and
leadership, for deciding not to lend his hand in the uprooting of Jewish
communities to encourage terror."
Settlers have watched their political options for defeating the pullout dwindle,
while the fatal shooting of four Arab Israelis by a radical opponent last week
came as another blow to the movement — even though it condemned the attack.
In Kfar Darom settlement, dozens of settlers scuffled with paramilitary police
as troops tried to remove two caravans that had been used for monitoring
Palestinian fighters nearby.
Netanyahu, 55, himself a former prime minister, is widely expected to challenge
Sharon's leadership at some stage after the pullout and could benefit from the
support of opponents of the Gaza pullout. Sharon is 77.
Palestinians welcome the Gaza withdrawal but suspect that Sharon will use it to
tighten Israel's hold on much bigger West Bank settlements. Fewer than 4 per
cent of the 240,000 settlers will be affected by the plan.
In the West Bank, gunmen shot and wounded an Israeli man and his son in a car
near the Jewish settlement of Ateret, medics said. The boy was in critical
condition, they said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
In the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said a man had been shot dead
by soldiers when he approached a building near a border area that he had
abandoned during a military raid last year. The army was checking the report.