Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's deputy Tuesday predicted cabinet approval for the Israeli leader's amended Gaza withdrawal plan after reports that he would avoid charges in a long-running bribery scandal.  

But Sharon faced criticism over a massive Gaza raid seen as a way to blunt domestic resistance to his plan but which seemed to fall short of its security aims while stirring outrage abroad for killing over 40 Palestinians and flattening dozens of homes.

"We behaved like a bull in a china shop in Rafah (refugee camp)," the daily Maariv quoted a senior army officer as saying.

Sharon's effort to overcome rightist opposition within his Likud Party to his strategy of "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians has been handicapped by the threat of indictment that could oust him from office.

But he received a boost when Israeli television stations and newspapers said Attorney General Menachem Mazuz was likely to drop the bribery case against him for lack of sufficient evidence.

"Mazuz and his team believe that despite the allegedly corrupt behavior of Ariel Sharon in the affair, there is not enough proof to get a conviction," a legal source was quoted as telling the daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

Justice Ministry officials denied a decision had been made but promised a ruling by mid-June.

Nevertheless, aides to Sharon -- who has denied wrongdoing -- believe his hand has now been strengthened as he lobbies ministers to endorse a new version of his Gaza scheme rejected in a May 2 referendum of Likud's membership.

Narrow cabinet majority?

Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said a thin majority in the cabinet was now ready to back a rejigged plan that calls for evacuating Jewish settlers in stages rather than all at once from Gaza, captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war.

But political sources said victory for Sharon remained uncertain. Failure to prevail in a cabinet vote set for Sunday would be a second humiliating defeat for Sharon in less than a month and could unhinge his grip on a fractious coalition.

Violence has increased in Gaza since Sharon introduced his disengagement strategy and won US endorsement. Security sources said he was now determined to smash militants before any pullout to prevent them claiming victory.

Rafah residents trickled back to devastated neighborhoods after armored forces withdrew Monday vowing to resume the hunt for arms-smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border.

UN refugee officials said soldiers flattened 45 buildings, making 575 people homeless in the large inner-city refugee camp.

The army said it had demolished or badly damaged 56 structures. Commanders said troops shut down three tunnels.

But Israeli commentators asked whether the incursion, which was launched after 13 soldiers were killed in ambushes but went awry when a tank shell killed 10 Palestinians in a protest march, was worth the high price to Israel's international image.

"The harsh pictures of demolished homes in Rafah, with their wretched owners among the ruins, touched the hearts of many... including in Israel," Maariv columnist Amir Rappaport wrote.

The daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted a senior officer as saying: "There is no doubt that international pressure, and domestic (criticism), caused the operation to end early."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder wrote in an article for his party's newspaper that the withdrawal plan was seriously flawed since it excluded negotiations with the Palestinians.

But US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice last week called the plan an historic chance to revive peacemaking and said negotiations were not needed on every issue.

"Let's not stand here on the kind of ceremony that has locked up the Middle East for more than 30 years," she said.

(China Daily via agencies, May 26, 2004)