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Jerusalem

'Jerusalem is Israel's capital forever'


By Ryan Jones
September 06, 2005

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with some 100 Likud mayors and deputy mayors at his Jerusalem residence Monday to garner support for his efforts to thwart an early party primary election.

Sharon?s opponents in the Likud, including most of the party?s powerful central committee, are looking to oust the prime minister after he went through with his plan to expel some 10,000 Jews from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria.

The central committee will convene on September 26 to decide whether or not an early primary is to be held.  If they vote in favor, the poll could be scheduled as early as November.

Expecting that the central committee will back an early primary, the prime minister has been seen to be shifting right in his political outlook, after championing a ?disengagement? plan that smacked of the left-wing Labor Party?s platform.

There will be no more evacuations of Jews, especially in eastern Jerualem, Sharon told his intimate gathering of supporters Monday.

?Jerusalem is Israel?s capital forever,? the prime minister insisted.

Sharon made similar comments about Gaza?s Netzarim and other Jewish communities there during his 2003 election campaign.

Sharon lambasted those who would deprive the Likud of an extra year in power for what he called ?personal ambition.?

?I don?t understand this attempt to remove me,? Ynet quoted him as saying. ?The party is in power and they?re going against the party over something unclear. This is unprecedented.?

Sharon reportedly refrained from mentioning by name his primary leadership rivals, Binyamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau.

But in a thinly-veiled swipe at Netanyahu, Sharon said he and his administration were strengthening Israel?s hold on Judea and Samaria ?without talking? and making a big political show of it.

Last week, Netanyahu kicked off his election campaign from the Judean town of Ma?aleh Adumim, pledging to immediately implement as yet unfulfilled plans to connect the town to nearby Jerusalem with a new neighborhood.

The move would expand Ma?aleh Adumim, making it all but impossible to uproot, and solidify Israel?s hold on a unified Jerusalem.

Speaking from the same spot days later, Deputy Prime Minister and Sharon-confidante Ehud Olmert said building plans in the area were suspended and would not proceed, at least not under Sharon?s oversight, until Israel gained US consent for the project.

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