Sharon wins showdown over Gaza pullout

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel succeeded Monday in facing down an ultimatum from his finance minister and party rival, Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel radio reported that Netanyahu had withdrawn his threat to resign on Tuesday, despite Sharon's refusal to schedule a national referendum over his plan to withdraw all Israeli settlers unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and a few hundred from the West Bank.

Netanyahu's office said, however, that he had not yet made a decision. To keep him, Sharon and the Likud Party faction in parliament voted Monday to refer a referendum decision to a parliamentary committee, which will draft legislation for one. It is meant to be a face-saving gesture, since the parliament would vote down any referendum bill.

The small National Religious Party, however, will make good on its threat to pull out of Sharon's battered minority government in the absence of a Gaza referendum or new elections. Sharon also refused the party's request to delay the Gaza evacuation until a decision is made on who Yasser Arafat's successors would be.

The party, which supports the settlers, voted Monday night to withdraw its remaining four members of the government, including the minister of labor and social affairs, Zevulun Orlev. But the party, which has already split, was expected to quit the government before a Gaza withdrawal in any event.

Still, Sharon would have only 55 seats in the 120-member parliament, and without significant support from the opposition, would have trouble passing a state budget.

His Gaza plan was approved by 67 members of parliament, many of them from the Labor and left-wing opposition, but Labor has said it would not necessarily vote with Sharon on the budget, which must be passed by the end of March.

Labor is pressing to join the government, but the Likud central committee has explicitly prohibited Sharon from inviting Labor to do so.