By Matthew Tostevin
2 hours, 11 minutes ago
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -     Israel's parliament voted on Wednesday against delaying a withdrawal from the occupied     Gaza Strip, squashing the last political attempt by Jewish settlers to stall the plan before evacuations start next month.
The defeat by a wide margin, though widely expected, dealt another blow to rightists whose hopes of reinforcing Gaza settlements with thousands of pullout opponents have been blocked by security forces in the desert outside the strip.
"We had additional proof today that the government, parliament, and the people too, support disengagement," Prime Minister     Ariel Sharon told reporters

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TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel's police and security authorities have been placed on the highest state of alert amid an effort by tens of thousands of withdrawal opponents to enter the Gaza Strip
Officials said police have been placed on "emergency alert" to stop an estimated 40,000 withdrawal opponents from entering the Gaza Strip, closed by the military since last week. The opponents have reached a point about five kilometers from the Kissufim junction at the eastern entrance of the Gaza Strip.
"The level of alert reflects the mission," Israeli police commander Inspector-General Moshe Karadi said. "The level allows for the amount of troops and workload."

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"Events from recent days…raise fears that a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza is causing serious security damage to Israel," Rubenstein wrote. He added that Arabs see the planned withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza as proof that "Israel only understands the language of terror attacks and violence."
Rubenstein's comments come after weeks of warnings from several senior IDF officers that Arab terror will escalate after the planned expulsion of Jewish residents from their homes and turning over more than twenty-five Jewish communities to the Palestinian Authority (PA).''
Rubenstein noted that Hamas terrorists were supposed to be part of the "calm" in the past few months and be part of a new PA legislative assembly. Elections had been scheduled for this week, but PA chairman Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) recently postponed them for several months.

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By Jonathan Saul
Mon Jul 18, 1:11 PM ET
 


ELEI SINAI, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Jewish settler Avi Farhan, determined not to give up his home overlooking the sea when     Israel quits the occupied     Gaza Strip, is looking into becoming a Palestinian.
"I have met with Palestinians. I am willing to be a test case for peace and take up Palestinian citizenship," Farhan told Reuters. "It will hurt me to give up my Israeli citizenship, but I want to remain here."
One Palestinian official suggested he might be allowed to stay in overcrowded Gaza -- home to 1.4 million Palestinians -- as long as he obeyed Palestinian laws. Actual citizenship could only be decided on an individual basis and any applicant would have to meet the same conditions as anyone else.
Ordinary Gazans have long viewed the 8,500 settlers in the territory as bitter enemies living on land they want for a state.
Israeli Prime Minister     Ariel Sharon plans to give up all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip as well as four of 120 in the     West Bank in what he bills "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians. Withdrawals start next month.

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