Sharon faces political fallout after quitting Gaza

Now that Jewish settlers have been pulled out of the occupied Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could face a "disengagement" of his own. Sharon, branded a traitor by settlers he once championed and under fire from right-wingers who support them, looks increasingly like a man without a party as Israel gears up for elections due late next year. An opinion poll published in the Haaretz daily on Wednesday, a day after Israel completed the evacuation of 9,000 settlers in the Gaza Strip and a corner of the West Bank under Sharon's "Disengagement Plan," showed him in deep political trouble. In a face-off for the leadership of their Likud party, Sharon's most powerful political rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, would take 47 percent of the vote to 30.5 percent for the prime minister if the contest were held now, the survey showed.
Source Article: Reuters