Posted on 09/09/2004 12:25:57 PM PDT by anotherview
Sep. 8, 2004 23:32 | Updated Sep. 9, 2004 8:50
PM not considering national referendum
By GIL HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets with The Jerusalem Post Tuesday, September 7, 2004.
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has no plans to take his unilateral disengagement plan to a referendum of the general population, Sharon's spokesmen said on Wednesday, reiterating comments Sharon made to The Jerusalem Post the day before.
Sharon's office refuted a Channel 2 report from journalist Amnon Abramowitz that the prime minister's associates told Social Affairs Minister Zevulun Orlev that Sharon would agree to a referendum if it could be done within the timetable Sharon set for the plan.
Orlev intends to ask the National Religious Party central committee on Monday to allow the faction to stay in the coalition on the condition that Sharon initiates a referendum. His rival, NRP chairman Effi Eitam, will ask for the party to quit the coalition.
"If you ask me what mistakes I have made, one was not going to a general referendum," Sharon told the Post on Tuesday. "It doesn't look like it is on the cards now. I don't know if it's still possible when we are in the midst of a disengagement process."
Sharon's spokesman said that disengagement will be implemented without delay according to the timetable that was set by the cabinet. However, another Sharon aide said that if the prime minister does not succeed in passing the plan in the Knesset, a national referendum is an option that could be considered as an alternative.
Orlev confirmed the Channel 2 report, and said Sharon is doing the right thing by considering a national referendum. Orlev said this proposal, which he raised in the cabinet Sunday, would require a 51 percent majority of eligible voters or 60% of actual voters.
"Holding a referendum with a special majority would avoid a grave risk in the nation that could lead to civil war," Orlev said.
In the cabinet meeting, Sharon questioned Orlev's proposal, and told him that a referendum on the plan would pass. Orlev replied that only with a national referendum would Sharon's plan have any legitimacy.
Sources in the NRP loyal to Eitam accused Sharon of working to help Orlev in the central committee. "The prime minister is manipulating the political process because he is worried about the NRP central committee meeting," an Eitam loyalist said. "The prime minister understands that if the NRP quits the coalition, he will be forced to choose between disengagement and elections."
The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip requested that Sharon agree to legislation that if he loses the vote, he will accept the decision, unlike the Likud referendum.
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