http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-likud19aug19.story Sharon Rebuffed by Party Again
Likud rejects a proposal to form an alliance with Labor. The Israeli leader needs rivals' support to push through a plan to pull out from Gaza.
By Laura King
Times Staff Writer
August 19, 2004
JERUSALEM — Once again, Ariel Sharon's own party proved to be his toughest constituency.
The Israeli prime minister was rebuffed early today by rebels within his conservative Likud Party seeking to block his plans to forge an alliance with the left-leaning Labor Party. Sharon needs Labor's support to push through his controversial initiative to withdraw Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Although the ballot by Likud's Central Committee was nonbinding, it represented the latest in a series of setbacks for Sharon as the 76-year-old former general tries to execute an about-face in his once-ardent support for the settlement movement.
A senior aide to the prime minister who requested anonymity indicated shortly after the vote by Likud's policymaking body was tallied that Sharon would be undeterred in his aim of getting out of Gaza.
A raucous party gathering preceding the vote laid bare the deep ideological rifts within the Likud, whose rank and file overwhelmingly rejected the pullout plan in a May referendum. <snip>