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Israel will work to 'remove' Arafat
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel's security Cabinet said Thursday it would work to "remove" Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, a decision that could mean the Palestinian leader's expulsion from his Ramallah compound, the Israeli prime minister's office said. Thousands of enraged Palestinians in Ramallah, Gaza City, Nablus, Tulkarem and Khan Younis took to the streets in protest. In Gaza, throngs of Palestinians -- many of them firing rifles and pistols into the air -- marched through the city Thursday night chanting slogans such as "With our blood, with our lives, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Arafat" and "Listen, Sharon, Arafat is not going out." Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath called the Israeli announcement a "declaration of war" and said it could be a form of psychological warfare intended for shock effect. In a TV report Arafat said, "This is the terra sancta. No one can kick me out." Asked by a reporter if he was concerned for his life, Arafat said, they "can kill me by their bombs," but he will "definitely not" leave. Ra'anan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was asked by CNN if the Cabinet's action meant Israel would forcibly remove Arafat from Ramallah. "It doesn't mean that. The Cabinet has today resolved to remove this obstacle," Gissin said. "The time, method -- the ways by which this will take place -- will be decided separately, and the security services will continue to monitor the situation and make the recommendation about the proper action as they have done in the past." The issue is "how best to remove this obstacle without causing further damage" to peace with the Palestinians, Gissin said. Gissin also said Israel is not trying to turn Arafat into a martyr. "We're just turning him into a much more worried terrorist." The Israeli move against Arafat comes at a time when the U.S.-backed "road map" for peace appears buried under repeated Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians and Israeli strikes on Palestinian extremist group members that also have killed bystanders. The road map -- backed by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia -- aims to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and establish an independent Palestinian state by 2005. After two Hamas suicide bombings killed 15 Israelis Tuesday, Israeli warplanes hit the house of Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar on Wednesday, wounding him and at least 20 others and killing his son and a bodyguard. The Israeli move also comes as the Palestinian Authority is in the throes of crisis. Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas quit last weekend and Arafat named parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qorei, a longtime Arafat ally, to replace Abbas. An Arafat aide said Thursday the authority also plans to consolidate its security apparatus under Arafat, not Qorei. During his four months in office, Abbas was in a power struggle with Arafat, particularly over control of security forces to rein in militants conducting terror attacks against Israeli civilians. "It is a very, very dangerous decision. It is an unwise decision," Qorei said of the Israeli declaration on Arafat. "It will escalate the situation. It will make all efforts ... to try to implement the roadmap ... impossible, useless." He appealed to U.S. leaders "to ask the Israeli government to change this decision and to open dialogue with Palestine immediately or we will lose the opportunity and the chance." According to an e-mail communique to journalists, the Israeli security Cabinet declared Arafat "a complete obstacle to any process of reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians." And it said, "Israel will work to remove this obstacle in a manner, and at a time, of its choosing." (Security Cabinet Communique) Shaath responded by saying, "Removing the obstacle should have started with removing the occupation. It is the Israeli occupation that is the obstacle. We're not invading the Israeli territory. Israeli forces are occupying our country. The obstacle to peace starts there. "The second obstacle had to do with deepening the occupation by settlements, by building walls that snake into the valley of the West Bank, as President Bush has described," he said, referring to Israel's construction of a so-called "security fence." The Israeli security Cabinet also decided Thursday "to accelerate the construction of the security fence," the controversial barrier being erected in the West Bank to keep terrorists from entering Israel. Israel, which was willing to negotiate peace with Abbas, has said it will not support a government led by Arafat or one of his allies. "Israel must underscore its position that it will negotiate only with a prime minister who acts immediately to dismantle and remove the terrorist organizations," Thursday's communique said. The security Cabinet, which includes ministers responsible for security issues, met after Sharon cut short his trip to India after Tuesday's suicide bombings. In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. view is that Arafat "is part of the problem, not part of the solution." "At the same time, we think it would not be helpful to expel him because it would just give him another stage to play on," Boucher said. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also warned against exiling Arafat, saying it would be a dangerous move, according to Reuters. "Nobody can tell what would happen in the Palestinian territories if Arafat is expelled," Mubarak told Reuters. "Terrorism, violence will erupt everywhere. It would be a very dangerous situation." Russia also spoke against removing Arafat. "The fulfillment of this decision would be a serious political mistake which would have the worst negative impact on the situation in the region considering how complex it already is," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement obtained by Russia's Interfax news agency Friday morning. Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who is in Washington, also said he thought removing Arafat would be unwise. "I think it will be a mistake," Peres said. "Arafat outside the country will be more bitter and more negative and freer to do so." Referring to Qorei's nomination as prime minister, Peres said it is an internal Palestinian decision and it should be respected. "I know the man for many years. I think he's intelligent, he's serious, and what is more important, he understands that you cannot combine terror and peace."
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