Sharon kisses off Likud, does the right thing

'TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, confronting jeering rightist hard-liners in his Likud party, vowed on Monday to pursue a unilateral plan to quit some occupied land and shorten security lines against Palestinians.

Die-hard rightists repeatedly disrupted Sharon's address to a party convention, furious both with the plan and his stated preference for a negotiated solution to the Middle East conflict via a U.S.-backed 'road map' plan for Palestinian statehood.

'My disengagement plan is the best plan for our security. This is my plan and I will see it carried out,' Sharon declared to the raucous gathering of Likud's Central Committee.

He reiterated that Palestinians would wind up with much less territory if Israel enacted the separation measures than if they halted suicide bombings and other violence and negotiated permanent peace through the road map.'

... attaboy, Ariel. "