Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pro-settler party will likely agree to uproot some Jewish settlements as part of a go-it-alone peace scheme opposed by Washington, a key Israeli lawmaker said today.
Palestinians fear Mr Sharon's ideas -- put forward as a unilateral alternative if a US-backed "road map" fails - would leave them a shrunken, chopped-up state inside a barrier of wire and concrete that has been internationally condemned.
Mr Sharon's Likud party, traditionally vehement in its support of settlers, would be vital for pushing through any scheme. For decades Mr Sharon, a general-turned-politician, has been a leading champion of the settlers.
Mr Yuval Shteinitz, the hawkish head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, said Mr Sharon had outlined a "long-term redeployment" as an alternative to a peace deal and it was accepted by most Likud lawmakers.
"What Sharon suggests is not concessions but steps that will allow us to defend ourselves better," Mr Shteinitz told reporters. "I advise the Palestinians that it's better for them to go for a peace agreement."
The mass-circulation Maariv daily said the "Sharon plan" would mean evacuating five smallish settlements by next summer.
A Tel Aviv university poll today showed about 60 per cent of Israelis favoured evacuating all settlements in the Gaza Strip and isolated settlements in the West Bank.