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| Israel-Palestine |
| Two Polls See Sharon Losing Likud Vote on Gaza Plan |
| 2004-04-29 |
| JERUSALEM (Rooters) - An Israeli newspaper poll on Thursday found that 47 percent of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party oppose a Gaza pullout against 39 percent supporting it, suggesting he could lose a key May 2 referendum on the plan. Of the 583 survey respondents from the right-wing Likud, 14 percent were still undecided on the "disengagement plan," the daily Yedioth Aharonoth said. Sharon is due to appeal for party support on Israeli radio later in the day in a bid to win backing for the plan before the Likud referendum on Sunday. A second poll found a slimmer lead for opponents of the Sharon plan. According to the daily Maariv, 45 percent of Likud's 200,000 members would vote against the plan if the referendum were held today, while 42 percent would back it. The rest were undecided. Under the plan, backed by President Bush during Sharon's recent visit to the United States, Israel would withdraw all its settlements from the Gaza Strip and four small settlements from the West Bank. Many Likud members oppose ceding any land captured by Israel in the 1956 Middle East war and regard the plan to quit Gaza as a "victory for terror." |
| Posted by:Steve White |