Israeli President Moshe Katsav said on Monday the vocal opposition of pro-settler rabbis to Israel's Gaza pullout could incite ultranationalists to try to assassinate Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "In the struggle over the disengagement someone is likely to distort the rabbis' messages," Katsav told Army Radio.
The result, he said, could be "extremist actions" and "the distorted conclusion that to prevent Israel's destruction, one must assassinate the prime minister".
The Shin Bet security service on Sunday measured Sharon and members of his cabinet for bullet-proof vests, a sign of increasing fears of violence against Israeli leaders ahead of the pullout due to begin in mid-August.
In recent weeks, some pro-settler rabbis have sharpened their rhetoric against the withdrawal from land they see as a biblical birthright, condemning it as a violation of Jewish law and a danger to Israel's existence.
Such talk has revived memories of verbal attacks on Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin before his assassination in 1995 by an ultra-rightist Jew opposed to his peace moves with Palestinians.
Hoping to sharpen that message, right-wing legislator Effi Eitam said on Israel Radio he planned to meet rabbis and settlers to draft a charter of non-violence to avoid clashes with Israeli soldiers during the pullout.