JERUSALEM - Israel on Wednesday commemorated the thousands of soldiers killed in the nation's wars as a fierce battle raged in government over whether the pullout from Gaza will strengthen the Jewish state's security.
After the country came to a standstill for a minute of silence at 11:00 am (0800 GMT), Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would leave no stone unturned in his quest for peace.
"Today, as you head to the cemeteries, I hope that I will fulfill two promises," he said in a message to families of war victims. "Firstly, to go on defending our small homeland with all our might and, secondly, to do my upmost to bring peace as soon possible.
"A strong state of Israel, with Jerusalem as its unified capital, are the guarantees of the state's existence."
His Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz insisted the impending pullout of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip -- the first time that Israel has left occupied Palestinian territory -- would help guarantee the safety of a nation which will begin celebrating its 57th birthday at sundown.
"I hope the number of civilian and military casualties will diminish to a minimum," said Mofaz. "This has to be looked at as a process, and not as a point in time immediately after the evacuation."
Mofaz, one of Sharon's closest allies in a volatile cabinet, also said the withdrawal would enable Israel to push its final borders eastwards by enabling it to keep control of large settlement blocs in the West Bank.
Sharon has won implicit backing for his strategy from US President George W. Bush, who said it was "unrealistic" to expect Israel to leave all settlement blocs as he endorsed the so-called disengagement plan.
The Palestinians welcome the principle of Israel's departure from any piece of occupied territory, but prime minister Ahmed Qorei slammed its intention to use the pullout from Gaza and four small West Bank settlements to widen the borders.
"They are going to withdraw from Gaza to better control the West Bank. They are going to leave four settlements in the Jenin area (of the northern West Bank) to Judaise Jerusalem," Qorei said.
In place of the "2,000 homes" to be torn down in Gaza, Israel will build "3,500 homes in Jerusalem and another 4,000 in the West Bank."
Sharon, nicknamed the bulldozer, has ploughed his way through opposition to his project from his former allies in the settler movement as well as from within government and his Likud party.
Having won parliamentary and cabinet approval, he was hoping arguments about the pullout's merits would die down.
However Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his chief rival within Likud, resumed his criticism by saying "disengagement fuels the inferno of terrorism."
"Anything that persuades the Palestinians that we are being pushed by their superior will and their acts of terror to vacate one position after another emboldens terror and pushes peace further away," the former premier added.
Netanyahu's broadside comes after Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom called for a complete rethink of disengagement if the militant Islamist movement Hamas wins July's Palestinian legislative elections.
While Sharon has insisted the pullout will take place come what may, such comments from two of his most senior ministers have again prompted the Palestinians to question whether the withdrawal will really happen.
Speaking to AFP at an Arab-South American summit in Brasilia, Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Qidwa said Shalom's remarks were "unacceptable" and "lack seriousness".
A massive security operation was meanwhile taking place in Israel while the country marked both its war dead and independence, with the army sealing off the West Bank and Gaza until Saturday.
05/11/2005 11:45 GMT