Remember this?

From way back when:

An Israeli government minister has gone into hiding to try to thwart Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan.The prime minister intended to fire two cabinet members who oppose the plan, but the dismissal notice has reportedly not reached one of them, Benny Elon.

Mr Sharon planned to ask his government to vote on the scheme on Sunday but, if Mr Elon is not found, the prime minister may have to postpone the vote.

...Mr Elon has not been found. He told Israel Radio that he had received a call from someone who sounded like the prime minister - but that he could not be sure if it was Mr Sharon or a comedian who impersonates him.

He may already have been in hiding long enough to thwart Sunday's vote, since sackings take 48 hours to come into effect under Israeli law.

Sharon fired National Union ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Benny Elon on Friday morning in a bid to win a cabinet majority on his revised disengagement plan.

Elon, who had served as tourism minister, said he would do everything he could to avoid accepting the dismissal notice, so that Sharon would not have a majority in favor of the plan. He was spending the weekend at the Netzarim settlement in the Gaza Strip.

His aides said that he intended to arrive at Sunday's cabinet meeting to vote against the pullout plan. The Prime Minister's Office said that Elon would not be allowed to enter the cabinet meeting or to vote in it.

Speaking on Israel Radio on Friday, Elon said Sharon had called him to tell him he was fired, but that the dismissal was not official until he received the letter. In any case, he said, he could not verify the phone call was actually from Sharon.

"I will do everything I can so that there won't be a majority," Elon said, however a government official said Elon "is not going to be at the meeting, he's fired." Lieberman received his dismissal notice around 11 A.M. Friday.

Sharon originally summoned the ministers to his office. Lieberman, who has been in charge of the Transportation Ministry, told the Prime Minister's Office he was busy in the morning and would arrive at Sharon's office at 1 P.M.

Suspecting the two may not show up, Sharon opted to have the notices delivered to them personally. Government Secretary Yisrael Maimon informed the other cabinet ministers that the two were being fired, as the government is required to do by law.

Couriers were sent to hand-deliver the dismissal letters to the rightist ministers after they failed to show up at the Prime Minister's Office at 9 A.M. as summoned. The dismissals take effect 48 hours after Lieberman and Elon receive them.

Oh, the ethics. How they burn.