Although Prime Minister Ariel Sharon succeeded in enlisting some of his top cabinet ministers to support his disengagement/expulsion plan, convincing them to actually recruit voters is proving more difficult.
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Limor Livnat and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom came out last week in grudging support of the plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and expel its Jews from their homes. Vice Premier Olmert complained to Sharon, however, that the three were not actively canvassing support. Sharon met yesterday with the three, and had little success in his bid to have them campaign actively on behalf of the plan. Netanyahu and Livnat both said that they had done the most they could for Sharon by publicly endorsing the plan, but could not directly ask their supporters to vote in favor of the expulsion/retreat. "It's a matter of conscience," they each said.
Netanyahu and Livnat thus made it clear that their support for the evacuation is not quite whole-hearted, and could mean the difference of many votes in the upcoming Likud Party referendum on the plan six days from now.
Minister Shalom, however, who was the last of the three to announce his support, agreed to give speeches in favor of the plan.
Uri Frej, chairman of the Likud's Petach Tikvah branch, one of the largest Likud branches in the country, has announced that he is mobilizing to prevent the Prime Minister's plan from winning the party vote. "We must not transfer our Jews from the Katif region and from Judea/Samaria, and tell them that we're giving their houses to the shahids [holy Moslem murderous terrorist martyrs]," he said.
A movie in English about Gush Katif can be seen at "www.israelnn.com/metafiles/asx/eng-video/gush-eng.asx".
Leading rabbis in Israel throughout the religious spectrum have expressed their objections to the evacuation plan. These include: Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri; Rabbi David Batzri; former Chief Rabbis Mordechai Eliyahu, Avraham Shapira, and Ovadiah Yosef; rabbis of Chabad; Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam, known as the Sanzer Rebbe; and others.
The Arab "Balad" party in the Knesset, led by MK Azmi Bishara, has sent a letter to U.S. President Bush, calling upon him not to support the disengagement plan. The Arab MKs' concern is that the nearly 8,000 Jews of Gaza will be relocated to the Negev or the Galilee - areas in which reside relatively high concentrations of Bedouin and other Arabs, respectively.
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Limor Livnat and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom came out last week in grudging support of the plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and expel its Jews from their homes. Vice Premier Olmert complained to Sharon, however, that the three were not actively canvassing support. Sharon met yesterday with the three, and had little success in his bid to have them campaign actively on behalf of the plan. Netanyahu and Livnat both said that they had done the most they could for Sharon by publicly endorsing the plan, but could not directly ask their supporters to vote in favor of the expulsion/retreat. "It's a matter of conscience," they each said.
Netanyahu and Livnat thus made it clear that their support for the evacuation is not quite whole-hearted, and could mean the difference of many votes in the upcoming Likud Party referendum on the plan six days from now.
Minister Shalom, however, who was the last of the three to announce his support, agreed to give speeches in favor of the plan.
Uri Frej, chairman of the Likud's Petach Tikvah branch, one of the largest Likud branches in the country, has announced that he is mobilizing to prevent the Prime Minister's plan from winning the party vote. "We must not transfer our Jews from the Katif region and from Judea/Samaria, and tell them that we're giving their houses to the shahids [holy Moslem murderous terrorist martyrs]," he said.
A movie in English about Gush Katif can be seen at "www.israelnn.com/metafiles/asx/eng-video/gush-eng.asx".
Leading rabbis in Israel throughout the religious spectrum have expressed their objections to the evacuation plan. These include: Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri; Rabbi David Batzri; former Chief Rabbis Mordechai Eliyahu, Avraham Shapira, and Ovadiah Yosef; rabbis of Chabad; Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam, known as the Sanzer Rebbe; and others.
The Arab "Balad" party in the Knesset, led by MK Azmi Bishara, has sent a letter to U.S. President Bush, calling upon him not to support the disengagement plan. The Arab MKs' concern is that the nearly 8,000 Jews of Gaza will be relocated to the Negev or the Galilee - areas in which reside relatively high concentrations of Bedouin and other Arabs, respectively.