Haaretz (Sunday): PM begins bid to get ministers behind disengagement

From Haaretz (Tel Aviv)
Dated Sunday February 8

PM begins bid to get Likud ministers behind disengagement
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday began meetings with Likud ministers aimed at convincing them to support his disengagement plan. Sharon met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who has publicly declared his opposition to a unilateral withdrawal from the territories. The two are set to meet again, after Shalom returns from a trip to India.
Sharon on Monday will meet with ministers Limor Livnat and Benjamin Netanyahu. Estimates in the Prime Minister's Office are that Livnat will support the plan, after she already expressed her agreement to a limited disengagement plan, if it is accompanied by strengthening of other settlements. On Thursday, Sharon will meet with ministers Uzi Landau - who vehemently opposes the plan - Yisrael Katz and Tzachi Hanegbi.
National Religious Party leader Minister Effi Eitam on Sunday said that his party would leave the government if the prime minister's disengagement plan is approved.
During an NRP tour Sunday through the Gush Katif settlement area in the southern Gaza Strip, Eitam said his party will make efforts to alter the disengagement plan as members of the government coalition.

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