Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented to the Likud MKs today his schedule for the coming months to implement his plan to uproot the Jewish residents of Gaza and northern Samaria and withdraw all Israeli presence. The timetable is as follows:
* Tuesday, Sep 14 (two days before Rosh HaShanah) - He will present to the political-security mini-Cabinet the principles of the "Law for the Implementation of the Disengagement Plan," "including principles for compensation and evacuation of the evacuees."
* Sunday, Sep 26, the day after Yom Kippur - Cabinet ministers will receive a memo of the main points of the above law.
By October 24, Sharon said, "the law will be approved by the government, and by Nov. 3, I estimate that it will be brought for its first reading in the Knesset." It must then be reviewed by a Knesset committee, and then presented for its second and third Knesset readings.
Following this legislation process, and a short time before the implementation of the withdrawal/expulsion, the Cabinet is to vote on the actual execution of the plan to remove the 25 communities, in four stages. It will be recalled that on June 6, the Cabinet merely voted to approve the "intention" to carry out the plan, in accordance with a compromise reached with disengagement-opponents Ministers Netanyahu, Shalom and Livnat.
Two other milestones in the process will be the Compensation Law and the IDF's preparation of an operative plan to actually remove the residents who stubbornly refuse to be thrown out of their homes. Regarding the Compensation Law, Sharon has canceled his plans to call a special mid-recess Knesset session to pass this legislation - which would have enabled advance payments to residents who wish to leave - and will instead bring it for a first Knesset reading in two months' time. Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, who opposes the disengagement but said he would probably not block the special session, has thus been saved from making this choice.
Regarding the sticky question of how to physically take the citizens out of their homes, the IDF has been asked to prepare its plan and present it within 30 days. The police will do the actual work of pulling the people from their rooms, while the army will supervise.
Finance Minister Netanyahu said today that Sharon's rushed-up disengagement timetable is not in accordance with the Cabinet decision of June 6 and is therefore not acceptable. Minister Netanyahu reminded Sharon that the original Cabinet decision spoke of a gradual process, with separate votes and time to consider before the evacuation of each bloc of communities. Sharon said to him, "True, we spoke of a process of stages, but it won't be weeks or months between each stage. We can't drag it out."
Netanyahu responded, "This is not acceptable. We agreed that it would be a staged process, with time in between each stage. This is necessary for three reasons: so that the withdrawal not be viewed as an Israeli retreat; so that there can be supervision over each stage, and especially over the security aspects; and so that the Israeli public, especially those who object, can get used to the idea - there's a big difference if you start just with Netzarim, or go straight to Gush Katif." Minister Livnat also objected to Sharon's rushed-up timetable.
After today's meeting, however, Netanyahu was much more toned-down: "I was happy to see that the Prime Minister clarified that there will be a staged process. I would not recommend adhering too tightly to the dates, because then the dates set the reality instead of the opposite."
* Tuesday, Sep 14 (two days before Rosh HaShanah) - He will present to the political-security mini-Cabinet the principles of the "Law for the Implementation of the Disengagement Plan," "including principles for compensation and evacuation of the evacuees."
* Sunday, Sep 26, the day after Yom Kippur - Cabinet ministers will receive a memo of the main points of the above law.
By October 24, Sharon said, "the law will be approved by the government, and by Nov. 3, I estimate that it will be brought for its first reading in the Knesset." It must then be reviewed by a Knesset committee, and then presented for its second and third Knesset readings.
Following this legislation process, and a short time before the implementation of the withdrawal/expulsion, the Cabinet is to vote on the actual execution of the plan to remove the 25 communities, in four stages. It will be recalled that on June 6, the Cabinet merely voted to approve the "intention" to carry out the plan, in accordance with a compromise reached with disengagement-opponents Ministers Netanyahu, Shalom and Livnat.
Two other milestones in the process will be the Compensation Law and the IDF's preparation of an operative plan to actually remove the residents who stubbornly refuse to be thrown out of their homes. Regarding the Compensation Law, Sharon has canceled his plans to call a special mid-recess Knesset session to pass this legislation - which would have enabled advance payments to residents who wish to leave - and will instead bring it for a first Knesset reading in two months' time. Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, who opposes the disengagement but said he would probably not block the special session, has thus been saved from making this choice.
Regarding the sticky question of how to physically take the citizens out of their homes, the IDF has been asked to prepare its plan and present it within 30 days. The police will do the actual work of pulling the people from their rooms, while the army will supervise.
Finance Minister Netanyahu said today that Sharon's rushed-up disengagement timetable is not in accordance with the Cabinet decision of June 6 and is therefore not acceptable. Minister Netanyahu reminded Sharon that the original Cabinet decision spoke of a gradual process, with separate votes and time to consider before the evacuation of each bloc of communities. Sharon said to him, "True, we spoke of a process of stages, but it won't be weeks or months between each stage. We can't drag it out."
Netanyahu responded, "This is not acceptable. We agreed that it would be a staged process, with time in between each stage. This is necessary for three reasons: so that the withdrawal not be viewed as an Israeli retreat; so that there can be supervision over each stage, and especially over the security aspects; and so that the Israeli public, especially those who object, can get used to the idea - there's a big difference if you start just with Netzarim, or go straight to Gush Katif." Minister Livnat also objected to Sharon's rushed-up timetable.
After today's meeting, however, Netanyahu was much more toned-down: "I was happy to see that the Prime Minister clarified that there will be a staged process. I would not recommend adhering too tightly to the dates, because then the dates set the reality instead of the opposite."