Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his cabinet today determined to win approval for his Gaza pullout plan but risking the collapse of his coalition government.
Mr Sharon secured a slim cabinet majority on Friday when he sacked two far-right ministers opposed to his US-backed proposal to disengage from conflict with the Palestinians by ceding some land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
But victory in his cabinet could spell collapse for his government, where his plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank by the end of 2005 has provoked a crisis.
The pro-settler National Religious Party (NRP), whose threatened departure would strip Mr Sharon of his parliamentary majority, planned to decide after the vote whether to bolt.
Mr Sharon was working also to avert a split in his rightist Likud, where rebellious cabinet members led by Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were demanding he water down his plan. "He is determined to push it through one way or another and maintain party unity," a Sharon confidant said.
A face-saving compromise was in the works to approve Mr Sharon's four-phase Gaza blueprint "in principle" while agreeing to hold off on any evacuation of settlements until a second vote in six to nine months, political sources said.
Polls show most Israelis support withdrawal from Gaza's hard-to-defend settlements, where 7,500 Jews live cloistered from 1.3 million Palestinians. But Likud rejected Mr Sharon's plan in a May 2nd referendum as rewarding "Palestinian terror".
Mr Sharon, once considered the godfather of settlement building on occupied land, has staked his credibility on pushing through the plan, which he has also pledged to put before parliament.
US President George W. Bush has endorsed Mr Sharon's proposal and has also said Israel should be allowed to keep some occupied West Bank land - a statement that angered Palestinians.
Palestinians say they welcome any withdrawal from land they seek for a state, but they suspect Mr Sharon's plan is just a ruse to strengthen Israel's hold on large settlement blocs in the West Bank where most of the 240,000 settlers live.