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gazaplan_0413.sPubDate = "4/14/2004 10:43:19 PM GMT";
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gazaplan_0413.appHeader = "FAST FACTS|Israel’s plan to leave the Gaza Strip";
gazaplan_0413.appDeck = "Some facts about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. ";
gazaplan_0413.appFooter = "Source: Reuters. Updated April 14, 2004.";
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gazaplan_0413[i++] = new Array("","What is the plan?","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
gazaplan_0413[i-1].body = "Sharon&#146;s plan is to &#147;disengage&#148; from the 3-1/2-year conflict with the Palestinians by pulling out of the Gaza Strip and four isolated West Bank settlements. The stated aim would be to make the Jewish state easier to defend.<p>The plan would mean evacuating 7,500 Jewish settlers who live in 20 enclaves. About 1.3 million Palestinians live in the rest of the territory.<p>Sharon has vowed to leave intact the main settlement blocs in the West Bank, home to 230,000 settlers and 2.3 million Palestinians.";

gazaplan_0413[i++] = new Array("","What does Sharon want from Bush?","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
gazaplan_0413[i-1].body = "Sharon needs the backing of Israel&#146;s main ally. He wants U.S. guarantees to try to sell the plan to doubters within his own ranks before a May 2 party vote that could also determine Sharon&#146;s political fate.<p>Israeli sources say Bush might assure Israel it will not have to give up all the land it occupied in 1967 under any future peace agreement -- an idea Palestinians call disastrous.<p>Bush has reiterated his commitment to the &#147;road map,&#148; which envisions both sides taking reciprocal steps to bring lasting peace and a Palestinian state. ";

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gazaplan_0413[i-1].body = "Palestinians welcome a pullout from Gaza but fear it would only be at the expense of a stronger Israeli holding chunks of the West Bank, depriving them of the viable state they seek on land seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.<p>Reacting to Bush's endorsement of the Sharon plan, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said that &#147;he is the first president who has legitimized the (Israeli) settlements in Palestinian territories.&#148;<br>Qureia added: &#147;We as Palestinians reject that. We cannot accept that. We reject it and we refuse it.&#148; Separately, anticipating what Bush would say, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had called it &#147;the complete end of the peace process.&#148;";

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gazaplan_0413[i-1].body = "Polls show more than 60 percent of Israelis favor withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.<p>But leaders of the pro-settler right, including some key members of Sharon&#146;s Likud Party, are angry their former champion could cede any land to the Palestinians and are preparing a campaign to stop the Gaza pullout.";

	// END editorial data