Israeli Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday submitted a letter of resignation to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in protest of the planned pullout from the Gaza Strip, slated to start in less then two weeks.
"We have reached the moment of truth today," Netanyahu wrote in the letter. "There is a way to achieve peace and security, but a unilateral withdrawal under fire and with nothing in return is certainly not the way."
The resignation came as minutes before the cabinet gave the green light to evacuation of the first group of settlements in the Gaza Strip. The settlements in the first phase are Netzarim, Kfar Darom and Morag. Next week, just before the beginning of implementation of the pullout, the government is expected to approve evacuation of the Gush Katif bloc, with ratification of the northern Gaza Strip and four northern West Bank enclaves to follow.
According to Haaretz, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, speaking ahead of the Sunday cabinet session, slammed Netanyahu for the finance minister's expected 'No' vote against the evacuation.
Netanyahu has often criticized the disengagement, but has resisted right-wing calls that he resign from the government to force a crisis over the issue.
Scoring Netanyahu for "zig-zagging" on the issue, Mofaz said "You cannot dither in the wind every morning anew and say 'My opinion's changed and now it's different.'"
Earlier Sunday, right wing protestors demanded from Netanyahu to resign from the “wicked government.”
