JERUSALEM -- Security around Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was heightened Thursday amid rumors of an assassination plot swirling around Jerusalem.
Tensions are high for Sharon and the entire Knesset as next week's vote approaches on Sharon's plan to withdraw some 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza, The Independent said.
A Knesset spokeswoman said the number of visitors a Knesset member would be allowed to bring into the chamber would be cut next week from 20 to two.
Veteran Labor party leader Shimon Peres, recalling the ferocious onslaught on former ally Yitshak Rabin who had proposed peace accords with the Palestinians in 1995 before he was shot and killed by a right-wing religious fanatic, said this week he was afraid someone will try to kill Sharon as well.
Polls show most Israelis favor Sharon's plan to dismantle all 21 settlements in occupied Gaza and just four of the 120 others in the West Bank.
Yonatan Bassi, who was appointed by Sharon to supervise the withdrawal, said a third of Gaza settlers were already reconciled to leaving their homes in return for tax-free compensation of up to $200,000.
