Israel could bring forward Gaza pullout -officials

By Matt Spetalnick

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel could bring forward its
planned mid-August withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to avoid
further mass protests to disrupt it, senior officials said on
Thursday.

Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert raised the prospect of
moving up the timetable for settlement evacuation hours before
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s arrival on a
troubleshooting mission aimed at keeping the Gaza plan on
track.

A march on Gaza’s settlements by thousands of demonstrators
fizzled out on Wednesday night after security forces blocked
the way, but Israeli police said they arrested about 300 people
trying to slip into the occupied strip overnight.

Settlement evacuation is scheduled to begin around Aug. 17,
but officials are increasingly worried about giving
ultranationalists any more time to mount disruptive protests
and foment resistance among a hard core of Gaza settlers.

“I definitely weigh positively the possibility of moving up
the date set ahead of time,” Olmert told Israel Radio. “The
developments of the past days have signaled a direction in
nature of the clashes and protests.”

A senior government source said Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, also concerned about a surge of Israeli-Palestinian
bloodshed, might discuss moving up the pullout with Rice. But
the source indicated it would be logistically difficult at this
stage to accelerate the process.

Sharon, who has billed his plan as “disengagement” from
conflict with the Palestinians, originally planned evacuation
of Gaza’s 21 settlements to begin on July 22 but delayed it to
avoid a Jewish mourning period that starts on Sunday.

Any attempt to bring forward the withdrawal would further
antagonize religious settlers and their supporters who believe
Jews have a biblical birthright to Gaza, where 8,500 Jews live
in isolation from 1.3 million Palestinians.

It could also put further strain on army and police, who
have not yet completed preparations for the pullout.

PALESTINIANS PLAN PULLOUT CELEBRATIONS

On the Palestinian side, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said
Palestinians would celebrate “over every single meter of land”
that Israel withdrew from. Israel intends to leave four of its
120 West Bank settlements along with all of its Gaza enclaves.

Palestinians welcome withdrawal from any of the territory
on which they hope to create a state, but point to the fact
that Israel is strengthening its hold on larger settlements in
the occupied West Bank at the same time as giving up Gaza.

The resources of Israel’s security forces were stretched
thin this week by the biggest standoff so far with anti-pullout
protesters.

Led by right-wing rabbis, 6,000 demonstrators who had been
penned into the southern Israeli farming village of Kfar Maimon
village for three days massed at the gates on Wednesday night
but there was no repeat of clashes that erupted a day earlier.

“We feel at this time it is not wise to confront the police
and army,” said Benzi Lieberman, head of the YESHA settlers
council. “I request everyone who can to remain here and others
to come back. We must continue our struggle in the right way.”

Only a few hundred people remained on Thursday at the site,
15 km (9 miles) from the main Gush Katif settlement bloc.

Most Israelis support the Gaza pullout, but opponents say
ceding any land captured in the 1967 Middle East war would
reward the Palestinian uprising.

After abandoning the march, settler leaders said they still
hoped to get thousands of people into the settlements to
reinforce those who plan to resist evacuation.

Keen to see the pullout go smoothly, the United States
hopes the withdrawal will help revive stalled negotiations on a
U.S.-backed peace “road map.”

A recent flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian violence prompted
Rice to arrange a mission to the region this week to try to
calm the situation and ensure that the Gaza plan moves forward.
(Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem and
Diala Saadeh in Ramallah)