OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 15 September 2003 — Israel upped the ante yesterday when a senior minister spoke openly for the first time about assassinating Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader the government vowed last week to “remove in a manner, and at a time, of (our) choosing.”
Ehud Olmert, who ranks second to Ariel Sharon in the right-wing coalition, told Israel’s army radio station that killing Arafat was “definitely one of the options.”
Although he left open the alternatives of expelling him, the deputy prime minister argued: “We are trying to eliminate all the heads of terror, and Arafat is one of the heads of terror. From a moral point of view, this is no different from others who were involved in acts of terror. It is only a practical question. What is the benefit? What will be the reaction?”
Support for assassination is growing within the security establishment. Shaul Mofaz, the defense minister, is advocating it behind the scenes.
The Israeli media reports that the head of the Shin Bet security service, Avi Dichter, also backs it on the questionable assumption that the furor — Palestinian and international — would fade more quickly if Israel killed Arafat than if it packed him into exile.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said: “The United States does not support either the elimination of him or the exile of Arafat. It’s not our position; hasn’t been. The Israeli government knows it.”
He added: “And I think the consequences would not be good. I think you can anticipate that there would be rage throughout the Arab world, the Muslim world and in many other parts of the world. And I don’t see how, at this delicate moment, that would serve the cause of moving forward on the road map.”
Saeb Erekat, a former senior Palestinian peace negotiator, warned Israel that the result would be disastrous either way. “We would immediately enter into anarchy and chaos,” he told The Independent.
“Militias would take over with machine guns. The first thing they would do in Jericho, my home town, is come to my office and kill me like the rest of the moderates. The ground is set for that in Bethlehem, Hebron and other cities too.”
He accused Sharon of deliberately undermining any chance for peace. “He wants to able to tell the world that he wants peace and is ready to make painful concessions for it, but that he doesn’t have a Palestinian partner. Well, he had a partner in Abu Mazen, but he didn’t do enough to help him.”
Arafat’s comeback has already stymied Ahmed Qorei’s attempt to form a new Palestinian government. He postponed plans to present a seven-man emergency team over the weekend.
Israel’s Labour opposition came out vigorously against Sharon’s intention to remove Arafat.
Shimon Peres, the party’s octogenarian leader, flew home early from the United States, where he was commemorating the tenth anniversary of the ill-fated Oslo accords. “This government,” he said, “has destroyed the peace process.”
Isaac Herzog, a Labour MP, elaborated: “Not only does the government decision bring Arafat to center stage, it strengthen him the world over, making him the focal point for anything to move in the Palestinian Authority. Sharon has led us into a dead end. We’re locked in with no way to move, right, left, back or forward.”
Arab ambassadors scheduled a meeting in Cairo today to discuss the Israeli threat. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said he telephoned Arafat and expressed his “complete solidarity and Arab League’s rejection of all Israeli attempts to expel him from occupied Palestinian land.”
