A narrow majority of Israelis support Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next week despite the 11th-hour resignation of his top government rival, a poll found today.
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quit in protest at the plan yesterday, saying Mr Sharon's vision of "disengaging" from fighting with the Palestinians would harm Israel's security. Political analysts saw the move as an early challenge to the 77-year-old premier's power.
The walkout by Mr Netanyahu, a former prime minister popular in the ruling Likud Party, was too late to prevent cabinet approval for the removal of Jewish settlers due to start after August 15th.
A survey by the biggest daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronothtoday said support for the plan to quit Gaza and a corner of the West Bank, lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war, had dipped slightly after Mr Netanyahu's resignation.
It found 55 per cent of Israelis back the pullout, down from 58 per cent in an undated previous poll. The number of those opposed to the plan rose from 35 per cent to 39 per cent. Six per cent of 500 respondents were undecided, according to the poll.
Right-wing opponents, including many in Mr Sharon's Likud, see the withdrawal as a capitulation to a four-and-a-half-year-old Palestinian revolt, as well as setting a precedent for further possible handovers in the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.
Mr Netanyahu (55) is widely expected to challenge Mr Sharon's leadership at some stage after the pullout and could benefit from the support of opponents of the Gaza pullout.
But a separate survey suggested that Mr Sharon's standing in Likud remains strong. A poll of Likud voters in the Maarivnewspaper, showed 51 per cent backing Mr Sharon as their preferred candidate for prime minister in elections expected next year.
Some 34 per cent backed Mr Netanyahu, according to that poll.