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Friday Headlines

Courtesy of ISN News

Three opinion polls published on Friday suggest Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza-withdrawal plan will be rejected by voters on Sunday.

Some 200,000 members of his Likud party are entitled to participate in the referendum on his proposal.

Sharon wants to pull all Israeli residents out of the Gaza Strip along with the soldiers who guard them.

The unilateral plan also calls for the evacuation of several Jewish villages in Samaria, the northern part of the West Bank.

The proposal has the full backing of the United States.

Three polls published on Thursday showed a strong swing against Sharon, and for the first time they indicated he will lose the vote.

Friday’s surveys suggest a defeat by anywhere between one and seven percent.

Reportedly Sharon’s advisers are telling him to threaten his resignation in the case of defeat to turn to polls around. However, Sharon is said to have rejected that idea, and also will refuse to quit if indeed there is a majority for the ‘no’ vote.

Other options available to Sharon in the event of a defeat include staging a nationwide referendum, forming a new government and calling a general election.

The leader of the second largest party in the coalition, the secular Shinui, is warning his party may resign if Sharon loses the vote.

Yosef (Tommy) Lapid says Shinui will be forced to move to the opposition if the vote signals an effective end to the peace process.

In a series of television interviews to be broadcast on Friday night, Sharon is expected to tell viewers that a defeat would be a huge slap in the face for U.S. President George W. Bush, who has put his full weight behind the plan, staking his reputation on it in an election year.

The final of Europe’s biggest basketball tournament will take place in Tel Aviv on Saturday night between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Skipper Bologna.

Both teams successfully came through their semi-finals on Thursday night.