Former Israeli prime minister Mr Shimon Peres has called for security forces to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
The current interim Labour Party leader is sceptical about Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's reported intimation that some isolated Jewish settlements could be dismantled and borders for a new Palestinian state drawn up. The Israeli media are calling it the "Sharon Plan".
It has already drawn sharp criticism both from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Mr Sharon's own Likud party. Mr Peres joined the chorus of dissent in an interview today saying that Mr Sharon reported suggestion may be tactical.
Mr Peres said the Prime Minister should prove his sincerity by pulling settlers and troops out of Gaza. "Gaza is a burden on our shoulders ... I do not see any reason for us staying," he said.
Polls show most Israelis agree. A majority are willing to part with the Gaza settlements, where about 7,000 Jews live surrounded by more than a million Palestinians.
Mr Sharon - a longtime champion of settlement-building - told a closed-door Likud meeting yesterday that Israel would have to give up some settlements on occupied land to achieve peace with the Palestinians, senior political sources said.
While his confidantes say he sees the Gaza enclaves as more expendable than settlements in the West Bank, he has so far offered no specifics for his new initiative.
"This is not a plan," he said. "I don't believe you can make an omelette from an unlaid egg," Mr Peres said. "This is the result of no new real [government] policy ... We have paid dearly for it economically, security-wise ... and also there is disquiet in the land."
Adding to the sense of urgency, Mr Peres said, is the fact that Israel's demographic clock is winding down. He said that due to a higher Arab birth rate, Jews could lose their majority in the Jewish state and see their democratic traditions threatened unless a Palestinian state is created alongside it.
Peres called for a swift return to negotiations, a freeze on settlement expansion and re-routing of Israel's West Bank barrier to avoid cutting deep into Palestinian land.
He described newly installed Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie as a "partner we can talk to" and urged Sharon to ease Palestinian hardship to help pave the way for a summit.