By LEAH KRAUSS

JERUSALEM -- Debate on the contentious Gaza disengagement plan began in the Knesset today, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, at times fighting to be heard over heckling from opposition members, saying the pullout would "strengthen Israel."

Tomorrow's vote is expected to leave Sharon with a victory on the pullout but a weakened coalition in the Knesset, according to reports from the Haaretz newspaper.

The debate and vote are expected to take place amid "massive" protests, according to a spokesman for Jewish settlers in Gaza and the West Bank.

"The disengagement would be a victory for terror," said Josh Hasten, the director of media relations for the Yesha council of settlers, in a telephone interview.

"Yesha" is the Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza -- the territories' biblical names -- and the word also means "salvation" in Hebrew.

"The plan sends the message that terror pays, and that will encourage terror groups to rearm and continue to attack," Hasten said.

Yesha is planning a rally in the rose garden adjacent to the Knesset, a teach-in for settler teachers and grade-school students with "lectures on democracy, Zionism, and the dangers of civil war," Hasten said.

"I heard there might also be a human chain," Hasten continued.

By Haaretz's count, between 65 and 68 of the 120 MKs will vote for disengagement, which needs only a simple majority of 61 to pass. Among the definite supporters, the newspaper said, are all 19 Labor MKs, 21 of 40 Likud MKs, 14 out of 15 Shinui MKs -- MK Yehudit Naot is sick and may miss the vote -- six Yahad MKs, two MKs each from One Nation and United Arab List, and National Union MK Michael Nudelman.

The uncertain votes include Naot and Likud MK Eli Aflalo, who is also sick, and One Nation MK David Tal, who is considering switching his vote following a call by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of the ultra-religious Shas Party for MKs to vote against the pullout plan.

But although Sharon seems to enjoy a comfortable majority on the disengagement question, his coalition may begin to fall apart as a result of the vote. The National Religious Party, another ultra-Orthodox group, reiterated that it would quit the government over disengagement, leaving Sharon with a 55-seat coalition.

This would not immediately bring down the government, but would significantly weaken it.

National Religious Party MK Nissan Slomiansky did not return phone calls for comment by publication time of this story.

As a result, Haaretz reported, Sharon will begin trying to form a new, unity government immediately following tomorrow's vote on the plan, which calls for the Israeli pullout from Gaza and portions of the northern West Bank.

According to Haaretz reports, later this week Sharon will seek to build a coalition composed of Likud, Labor, and Shinui.

Labor spokesman Yoram Dori could not be reached for comment by publication time.

If efforts to realign the coalition fall through, Sharon will call for new elections, Haaretz said.

"The last thing Israel needs right now is an election campaign," Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin said in a telephone interview.

"Elections are the last option; the least preferable," Gissin continued. Sharon will call for elections, he said, "only if it becomes impossible to govern and to implement the disengagement plan."

Instead, the call for new elections sends "a clear warning to Likud members that the rebellion can't continue, because (a rebellion) will lead to elections and dire personal consequences to those who will not be voted (back) in," Gissin added.

The "rebellion" to which Gissin referred started when almost one-third of Sharon's own Likud Party voted against his speech to open the legislature's winter session two weeks ago. The rebel ministers oppose the disengagement plan, and many are calling for a national referendum on the issue to confer legitimacy on the decision. The bill before the Knesset makes no mention of referendum and assumes that the legislature can and should decide the issue.

Besides the rebels, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - a former prime minister -- and Education Minister Limor Livnat have publicly pushed for a national poll during the past two weeks.

Today, in the hours leading up to the start of debate, Uzi Landau - a minister without portfolio in Sharon's government and leader of the rebel faction -- requested a meeting with Netanyahu, Livnat, and other potentially sympathetic cabinet ministers to discuss last-ditch calls for a referendum.

A representative from Landau's office said Landau was "not giving any comments or interviews to the foreign press when it comes to internal politics."

The prime minister himself has strenuously opposed a national vote since the idea's inception. Sharon maintains that "referendum" really means "stonewall" by delay.

Because such a vote would be the first of its kind in Israeli history, the Knesset would spend anywhere from six months (according to an estimate by Hebrew University political scientist and Knesset expert Reuven Hazan) to a year (by Sharon's own estimate) debating and legislating the terms of the vote.

Next week, assuming the disengagement measure passes, the Knesset is scheduled to start debate on a compensation package for settlers who will have to leave their homes.

Hasten noted that an April petition rejecting any form of compensation for evacuation, circulated in the Gaza settlement of Gush Katif, garnered the signatures of 95 percent of residents.

"Gush Katif wanted to send the message that they can't be bought," Hasten said.

"I'm confident that the overwhelming majority of the settlers will reject compensation and will choose to remain in their homes," even if the Knesset approves the pullout, he said.

He clarified this statement by saying that any resistance would be peaceful.

Copyright 2004 by United Press International