TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s tough talk this week, including a veiled threat on the life of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, may reflect troubles at home over his inability to win hard-liner support in his own Likud Party for his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip.
With just a week to go before members of the Likud Party take part in a referendum on Mr. Sharon’s withdrawal plan, support for the initiative appears to be shrinking.
“I am disturbed by the fact that we are not putting the full effort into encouraging Likud members to support the prime minister and his plan,” said Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, criticizing other party leaders for being too lax in their support for the plan.
As the United States and European and Islamic world governments condemned Mr. Sharon’s suggestion he may target Mr. Arafat for assassination, the longtime Palestinian leader told thousands of cheering supporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah that he would not be intimidated by Mr. Sharon’s threats.
“I tell Sharon and his gang, ’The mountain cannot be moved by the wind,’” Mr. Arafat said.
The militant Palestinian group the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade threatened yesterday to launch waves of attacks “without mercy” if Israel harms Mr. Arafat.
In new violence yesterday, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians, including three militants, near the West Bank town of Jenin.
Mr. Sharon’s comment Friday that he would no longer be bound by a promise he made to President Bush not to target Mr. Arafat was seen by many as an effort to bolster sagging support in his own political base.
When all of the prominent Likud ministers in the Sharon government last week endorsed his proposal on a unilateral pullout and dismantling of all Israel’s settlements in the Gaza Strip, the May 2 vote seemed a lock for the prime minister.
By the end of last week, however, a survey conducted by the Ha’aretz newspaper among the party’s 200,000 members revealed an almost even split, with 47 percent favoring the plan and 40 percent opposed. Just a week before the margin in support was twice as large.
The shift reveals a party torn between its ideological roots of opposing any territorial concessions to Arabs and a new pragmatism that recognizes keeping every inch of Biblical Israel is not in the interest of the Jewish state.
Mr. Sharon faces a highly energized coalition of settler groups who have crafted their campaign to tug at the sympathies of their supporters, Likud voters. The prime minister’s chances depend on whether his appeal of logic and national self-interest can overcome the emotional appeal. There are signs that it is working, but victory is far from assured.
“With all of the difficulty and sadness, this is the right thing to do. If not, we’ll be much worse off in the future,” said Yedidya Mizrahi, an activist from the Tel Aviv suburb of Rehovot. “The settlers should get the compensation, and we need to hug them. But we need to use our logic and not bang our heads against the wall.”
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
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