Israeli PM fires National Union ministers in bid to pass plan

Elon said he would do everything he could to avoid accepting the dismissal notice, so that Sharon would not have a majority in favor of the plan. His whereabouts remained unclear on the Sabbath eve, though Army Radio reported he was at the Gaza Strip settlement of Netzarim.

Speaking on Israel Radio, Elon said Sharon had called him to tell him he was fired, but that the dismissal was not official until he received the letter. In any case, he said, he could not verify the phone call was actually from Sharon.

"I will do everything I can so that there won't be a majority," Elon said, however a government official said Elon "is not going to be at the meeting, he's fired."

Lieberman received his dismissal notice around 11 A.M. Friday.

Couriers were sent to hand-deliver the dismissal letters to the rightist ministers after they failed to show up at the Prime Minister's Office at 9 A.M. as summoned. The dismissals take effect 48 hours after Lieberman and Elon receive them.

The messengers went out after Government Secretary Yisrael Maimon informed cabinet ministers that Lieberman and Elon were being fired, as the government is required to do by law.

Lieberman, who has been in charge of the Transportation Ministry, told the Prime Minister's Office he was busy in the morning and would arrive at Sharon's office at 1 P.M., while Elon had not decided as of Thursday night whether he would respond to the summons.

Associates of Elon said Thursday the tourism minister didn't intend to take part in the psychological warfare the PMO was waging to get the plan passed.

But Sharon didn't wait for the ministers to show up, opting to have the notices delivered to them personally instead.

Lieberman said Friday he had no obligation to support the disengagement plan because it had not been passed by the government.

"I'm being fired for disagreeing with the prime minister," he told Israel Radio, adding he would have resigned had the plan passed. "But as long as the government has not accepted or approved [the plan], it's my right to express my opinion."

Lieberman also accused Sharon of essentially laying the blame for his failures, such as the split within his own Likud party, at the feet of the National Union.

Shinui chairman Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said Friday that Lieberman should have been fired from the government even if there had been no vote on the disengagement plan. Lapid told Israel Radio that Lieberman's plan to deport Israeli Arabs who did not show loyalty to the state "compels his removal from the government."

Sharon told Haaretz on Thursday: "I didn't ignore all sorts of attempts and compromises, but there were some things I couldn't give in to, and I didn't. I need a majority on Sunday, and when I found out that this threesome [Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Education Minister Limor Livnat] was going to vote against me, I invited the National Union ministers for tomorrow in order to fire them."

Prior to firing the National Union ministers, Sharon needed only a single additional vote for the plan to pass. Without Lieberman and Elon, the plan has 10 opponents in the cabinet (eight from the Likud - including Netanyahu, Shalom and Livnat - and two from the National Religious Party), and 11 supporters (six from the Likud and five from Shinui).

Likud compromise talks stall
Negotiations within the Likud aimed at reaching a compromise based on a proposal by Immigrant Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni stalled Thursday evening.

Netanyahu, Shalom and Livnat claimed Thursday that Sharon had retracted understandings reached earlier in the day, according to which sources in the Prime Minister's Office had agreed not to freeze the flow of funds to settlements slated for evacuation.

Sharon is believed to have altered his stance after holding consultations with Weisglass, who recently returned from talks in Washington and said the United States would not agree to transfer funds to those settlements, Israel Radio reported Friday.

Under the terms of Livni's proposal, the government will vote Sunday on the full disengagement plan, but the statement would include a clause requiring a separate government vote before any settlements are evacuated. The compromise formula also allows for delaying the vote on the evacuation of settlements by at least six months.

Livni met with Sharon in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening and presented the compromise formula on the pullout plan.

Sharon reiterated Thursday that his disengagement plan would be approved in a cabinet vote on Sunday. "I plan to uphold my commitments and pass the decision this coming Sunday," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/435378.html