Netanyahu denies trying to oust Sharon

Sharon calls Likud vote 'party trickery'

Sharon and Netanyahu at Sunday's Likud meeting

TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- A day after outmaneuvering Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a key policy vote within the Likud Party, Benjamin Netanyahu denied Monday he has designs on replacing or undermining Sharon.

"If I wanted to be prime minister, I would have been prime minister," Netanyahu told CNN, noting that he declined to run in the last election in 2001 even though he believes he could have won.

"People are focusing on the personal of who's up, who's down. It's not important. It really isn't. Focus on the issues," he said.

On Sunday at a Likud Party meeting, 59 percent of the 2,600 voting members voted to defy Sharon and proceed with a vote on Netanyahu's proposal that Likud reaffirm its opposition to a Palestinian state. The policy statement then passed by a show of hands. (Full story)

Sharon, who has said he would support the formation of a Palestinian state as part of a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, opposed voting on Netanyahu's proposal, saying it was "dangerous to the state of Israel and will only intensify the pressures on us."

Sharon said Monday that the Likud vote -- which was not binding -- would not change his government's policy.

"I was elected to be the prime minister by a majority of two-thirds. I will not let party trickery dictate policy," Sharon told a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset. "I am responsible for what happens, and I must create policy according to decisions I made."

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Sharon was elected prime minister in 2001 and leads a national unity government that includes his Likud Party, the rival Labor Party and a variety of smaller parties in the Knesset.

Netanyahu, who was elected prime minister in 1996, left the helm of the Likud in 1999 after losing the prime minister's post to Ehud Barak.

In recent months, as violence has intensified between Palestinians and Israelis, he has been a major voice on the Israeli right pushing Sharon to take a harder line against the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Yasser Arafat.

In his CNN interview, Netanyahu said in reaffirming their opposition to an independent Palestinian state, Likud members were reacting to concerns that such an entity would threaten Israel's security.

"They were concerned about having a year and a half of terror from what is now less than a state," he said.

"They were concerned [about] what happens if Arafat gets all the powers of a state -- the power to field an army, the power to bring in unlimited weapons, the power to make military pacts with Iraq and Iran. And they were saying that is not how we envision peace. "

Netanyahu insisted, however, that Likud members do support self-government for Palestinians in some form short of a full state, if it can be balanced with Israel's security needs.

"There's not a single person in the Likud that I know of who wants to govern Palestinians, to go back to Gaza and Jenin," he said.

A leading member of the Labor Party, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, called Sunday's vote "tragic for the state of Israel."

But Peres predicted that even if Netanyahu were to replace Sharon as prime minister, Netanyahu would still deal with Arafat.

"I understand that this is a battle for power, but I am convinced that if Netanyahu is elected, he will be as he was before previous elections," Peres told Israel Army Radio. "He was in favor of [the] Oslo [Accords], and he shook Arafat's hand."

But Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the Likud vote was "a major and severe blow to all efforts" to revive the peace process.

"How many Palestinians will wake up tomorrow to say, 'That's it, we have nothing to lose'?" he asked.

"This is a very dangerous development, and I really hope it will be an eye-opener for President Bush and many people around the world to know what kind of people we are dealing with."

International reaction mixed

The reaction in the international community, where the concept of an independent Palestinian state existing side-by-side with Israel has widespread support, was mixed.

In Washington, a senior Bush administration official downplayed the significance of the vote, calling it more a matter of "party politics" in Israel than a true setback for the peace process. The official reaffirmed Bush's vision for the region that includes a Palestinian state.

In Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said it was a "pity" that internal Israeli politics were getting in the way of efforts to reach a peace agreement.

But speaking to reporters in Lebanon, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said the vote has undercut Sharon and left him unable to complete a peace deal.

"Sharon will remain in power, but will not be able to come up with any peace initiatives," al-Sharaa predicted.

"I think there is a widespread recognition across the whole of the Middle East, including in Israel," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, "that the only viable and safe solution to the terrible conflict in the Middle East is a two-state solution -- a secure state of Israel alongside a viable and democratic state of Palestine."

Arafat accepts Israel

In an interview conducted before the vote, Arafat told CNN the land of Israel and the Palestinian territories is "terra santa" -- Latin for "holy land" -- for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Any independent Palestinian state, he said, would have room for them all.

"We hope that we will have this independent Palestinian state side by side with Israeli Jewish state," Arafat said. Asked whether he accepts the Jewish state of Israel, he replied, "Yes." (Full story)

Arafat embarked Monday on his first tour of the West Bank since Israeli forces lifted their siege of his Ramallah compound May 2.

Cheering crowds greeted him in Bethlehem, where Arafat visited the Church of the Nativity, and in Jenin, where a crush of Palestinian admirers forced Arafat's security personnel to whisk him from a hall where he had been scheduled to make a speech. (Full story)

European Union ministers said Monday six European countries had agreed to take the 13 Palestinians whose surrender lifted the siege at the church. (Full story)

Israel launched military operations on the evening of March 28 against the "terrorist infrastructure" in the West Bank after a wave of terror attacks against Israelis, including a suicide bombing on the first night of Passover in Netanya that killed 29 people.

The Israeli army lifted a siege of Arafat's Ramallah compound on May 2, following the transfer of six Palestinians to a Jericho jail under international supervision. Five of the six are wanted by Israel in the death of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi last October.