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Reporter: Sharon aims to exile Arafat after offensive against Saddam
Leslie Susser

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is planning to expel Palestinian Authority head Yasser Arafat as soon as the anticipated American attack on Iraq is over, The Report has been told.

Hours after the January 5 double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Sharon came under pressure at a late night "kitchen cabinet" meeting to eject the Palestinian leader from the West Bank and Gaza forthwith, because of what ministers called Arafat�s deep complicity in ongoing Palestinian terror. Sharon, wary of American wrath, withstood the pressure. But he made it clear he would reconsider immediately after the American offensive against Saddam.

The three ministers at the meeting, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Silvan Shalom all argue that as long as Arafat is in the territories, terror will not stop. Sharon agrees in principle, but sees a problem with the timing, noting that in the run-up to the anticipated attack on Iraq, the Americans are urging maximal restraint, and don�t want Israel to do anything that might inflame the Arab world. But after the American offensive, aides say Sharon expects Washington will allow Israel far more leeway in responding to Palestinian terror, and that would be the time to expel Arafat.

Appearing before the Knesset�s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on January 6, Mofaz virtually confirmed the plan, saying that the day Arafat would no longer be around was "getting closer." Defense Ministry sources told The Report that in the coming year Israel aims to engage the Palestinians in serious peace talks, and that, in Mofaz�s view, "can only happen without Arafat."

Still, if the American attack takes place in early February, as widely expected, Sharon would first have to win reelection on January 28 and then form a coalition before acting against the Palestinian leader. And he would have to win approval for the expulsion from his new coalition partners. If, as seems likely, he forms a coalition with Labor, that could be a problem.

Labor leaders are strongly opposed to expelling Arafat. Party leader Amram Mitzna says he is prepared to negotiate with Arafat, as "the only Palestinian with the authority to deliver a peace agreement." And even Labor leaders who do not see Arafat as a potential peace partner are against expelling him. Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Haim Ramon says that precisely because of Arafat�s role in Palestinian terror, it would be better to keep him "cooped up in Ramallah" than allow him to go gallivanting around the world, pressing the Palestinian case and raising funds to fuel more terror. "No one would replace Arafat in the territories," Ramon says. "Expelling him would only make things worse."

January 27, 2003

  

Reporter

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