Q&A: Sharon's Gaza plan rejected

Ariel Sharon has said he will not resign

BBC Jerusalem correspondent James Reynolds looks at the key questions following the decisive rejection of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan by his own party.

How serious a defeat is this for Ariel Sharon?

The Israeli prime minister has got himself into a real mess.

Mr Sharon took a gamble when he decided to let Likud party members vote on his Gaza disengagement plan. That gamble has blown up on him.

He could have dismissed a narrow defeat as unimportant. But a 20 point loss is very hard to explain away.

He is now, officially, a prime minister at odds with his own party. But he knows that, among ordinary Israelis, there is a solid majority in favour of withdrawing from Gaza. His best bet now may be to try to let them have the final say.

Why did he lose?

Ariel Sharon may have been over-confident. He believed that the endorsement he received last month at the White House from President George Bush was good enough to win over Likud voters.

But he was up against people - Likud voters and settlers - whose homes were at stake.

So, they conducted a highly energetic anti-disengagement campaign - going from house to house to defeat the plan. In the end they mobilised their vote better than Mr Sharon mobilised his.

What are Mr Sharon's options now?

He has several alternatives.

He may press ahead and present the disengagement plan to the cabinet and the Knesset. But his centre-right coalition may break up along the way - forcing him to find new coalition partners.

Mr Sharon may prefer, instead, to force early elections or to pass legislation allowing for a national referendum on his plan - in the hope of tapping into the majority of Israelis who favour a Gaza withdrawal.

The Israeli prime minister indicated on Monday that he may modify his plan in the light on the opposition - though he didn't say how.

What does all this mean for the disengagement plan?

It's too early to say for sure, but it does seem likely that the timetable for its implementation may now slip.

Ariel Sharon had hoped to get it all done by the end of 2005. But now, the way ahead for him is a lot less clear.

What have the Palestinians said?

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, says that he hopes the result will persuade Ariel Sharon to abandon unilateral moves and return to the negotiating table in order to implement the international peace plan, the roadmap.