U.S. stopped Israeli raid to seize Arafat (Sharon is crazy)

The Israeli government is going crazy
The Israeli government is going crazy. They don't seem to care about the consequences of their actions on Israel and the rest of the world.

What is important about learning of the US's intervention is that when the US government REALLY WANTS TO EFFECT ISRAELI POLICY, it can do it. Which indicates that a lot of the so-called warnings to Israel in the past have been more for public relations than for actual action.

---BumbleBeeBoogie

The US pressure might not be exerted if there is a 10 + casualty count in a future terrorist attack.

I hope this doesn't happen. Exiling Arafat is such an insipid move that it appears to be more calculated an attempt to scuttle the Roadmap than it is sincere stupidity.

Palestinians Urge U.N. Protect Arafat From Israel
Sep 15, 2003
Palestinians Urge U.N. Protect Arafat From Israel; Annan Calls for Action on Peace Plan
By Edith M. Lederer - Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The Palestinians sought help Monday from the United Nations to protect Yasser Arafat following Israel's threats to "remove" him, and key members of the Security Council urged both sides to implement the U.S.-backed peace plan.
At the start of a meeting on the troubled region, the chief U.N. envoy to the Middle East said the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has broken down and he fears even worse bloodletting.

"The recent cycle of terror attacks and extrajudicial killings has broken the Palestinian cease-fire and brought the process to a standstill," Terje Roed-Larsen told the Security Council.

Roed-Larsen, who said it was too early to declare the peace process as finished, stressed that Arafat was a democratically elected leader who "embodies Palestinian identity and national aspirations."

The Palestinians have asked the United Nations to demand that Israel ensure Arafat's safety amid mounting criticism of the Israel's security Cabinet's decision Thursday to "remove" Arafat in a manner and time to be decided.

The statement Sunday by Israel's Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that killing Arafat is a possibility was certain to intensify the Palestinian demand for speedy U.N. action.

The council began consultations on a resolution drafted by the Palestinians late Friday and then adjourned until Monday, despite Palestinian pressure for a quick vote.

Council ambassadors said they wanted to consult capitals and wait for the outcome of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's meeting in Geneva on Saturday with the foreign ministers of the five permanent council nations - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

In the meantime, the council issued a statement expressing "the view that the removal of chairman Arafat would be unhelpful and should not be implemented." The statement, read by the council president, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, reflected the consensus among the 15 council members.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Israel would incite rage not only among Arabs but also Muslims everywhere by exiling or executing Arafat.

Deputy U.S. ambassador James Cunningham made clear on Friday that Washington's primary aim is to get the peace process back on track.

"Our view is that we should focus on trying to get people focused on implementing the road map, and that this isn't the right time to be looking at a Security Council resolution," he said.

After Saturday's meeting in Geneva, Annan announced that the four parties that drafted the road map - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - have agreed to meet in New York later this month to consider "all relevant aspects of the issue" and help Israel and the Palestinians move forward with the peace process.

"The permanent ministers of the Security Council recognized that both sides have obligations under the ... road map and ... that it is now essential to go ahead with its implementation," Annan said.

No date was announced for the meeting, but it is likely to take place when ministers are at the United Nations for the high-level General Assembly meeting, which starts Sept. 23.

Recent attacks by both sides have stalled progress on implementing the road map, which envisions a Palestinian state by 2005, and Israel's threat against Arafat has heightened tensions.

The Palestinian draft "demands that Israel, the occupying power, desist from any act of deportation and to cease any threat to the safety of the elected president of the Palestinian Authority."

It calls for the cessation of violence - including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction - and increased efforts by both sides to ensure implementation of the road map.

Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, said his country is trying to persuade the United States to veto the resolution.

Without a U.S. veto, "we can expect a resolution, which the Palestinians and others are presenting as a moderate and lukewarm statement ... but in my opinion the very fact of the meeting is proof ... of the U.N.'s real hypocrisy," Gillerman told Israel's Army Radio.

Gillerman said the Security Council has met repeatedly to condemn Israeli actions but ignores Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
-------------------------------------
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA9ULGPMKD.html

Craven
Craven, I hope you are right. But, as delineated in another post of mine, words have intense meaning in the Middle East, and these are very inflamatory words, way beyond the deadly chicken game being played there.

---BumbleBeeBoogie

US not satisified with resolution draft to protect Arafat
Sep 16, 2003
United States Still Not Satisfied With Draft of Resolution to Protect Arafat
By Edith M. Lederer - Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States said Tuesday it is not satisfied with a revised draft resolution demanding that the United Nations ensure the safety of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and a quick vote was unlikely.
Syria had intended to push for a vote after a daylong open Security Council meeting Monday on the Middle East, but was persuaded to amend it and delay the vote for a day.

But U.S. deputy ambassador James Cunningham told reporters Tuesday after seeing the new text that more consultations were needed.

"I don't think the revised text is any different from the previous text. Draw your own conclusions," he said. "I'm not sure it's going to come to a vote - or when it's going to come to a vote."

America's U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte said on Monday he would not support the resolution unless it contained a "robust condemnation of terrorism" and specifically mentioned groups like Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Brigades.

He didn't say a U.S. veto was imminent.

Representatives from more than 40 countries spoke in Monday's Security Council debate. It followed Israel's promise last week to "remove" Yasser Arafat, an announcement that drew criticism from around the world, including the United States.

The draft "demands that Israel, the occupying power, desist from any act of deportation and to cease any threat to the safety of the elected president of the Palestinian Authority."

The revised draft being circulated to council members added stronger language condemning Israel's targeted assassinations of militant leaders and Palestinian suicide bombings, "all of which caused enormous suffering and many innocent victims."

It called for a cessation of "all acts of terror."

Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said killing Arafat was an option, but later Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom backtracked on Olmert's remark.

The Palestinians are urging the Security Council to demand that Israel ensure Arafat's safety and prevent his deportation. Key council members are pushing both parties to implement the peace plan backed by the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union.

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA8V8N3OKD.html

Forget Killing Him, Israel Needs Arafat
MIDEAST: Forget Killing Him, Israel Needs Arafat
Peter Hirschberg - IPS 9/18/03

JERUSALEM, Sep 18 (IPS) - Yasser Arafat is in his element. After three years of relative diplomatic obscurity, his name is again on the lips of leaders around the world.

His fate is the subject of debate at the United Nations. And, most importantly for him, he is being treated daily to an outpouring of adoration from his own people, who flock to his Ramallah compound to chant their support for him.

The man the President of the Palestinian Authority has to thank for his resurrection is none other than Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who for the last three years has been trying to convince the world, with a fair measure of success, that Arafat is "not relevant."

But the decision, in principle, by Sharon and his security cabinet on Sep. 11 following two suicide bombings that killed 15 Israelis to "remove" the Palestinian leader, has again made him the sole relevant figure on the Palestinian political landscape.

The decision by senior Israeli ministers, which did not specify a date or a method for removing Arafat, has sparked world condemnation and invited U.S. pressure on Israel not to harm him. It took a U.S. veto on Tuesday to block a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at ensuring that Israel did not deport or harm the Palestinian leader.

Keen to exploit his resurgence, Arafat grabbed the diplomatic initiative Wednesday, proposing another cease-fire. He said contacts were under way with Hamas and Islamic Jihad and that Israel was "invited" to join the truce.

In the West Bank and Gaza, thousands have taken to the streets in a show of support to the man who is the living embodiment of the Palestinian national struggle.

Apparently unfazed by the international criticism, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in the most brazen remark so far by a senior Israeli minister on the fate of the Palestinian leader, declared earlier this week that "killing (Arafat) was one of the options" being considered by the government. "We are trying to eliminate all the heads of terror, and Arafat is one of the heads of terror."

Some Israeli officials have tried to explain U.S. opposition to the Israeli cabinet decision as merely tactical, relating to the timing and method of ousting the Palestinian leader.

That was not the message delivered by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during his visit to Iraq. "The United States does not support either the elimination or the exile of Mr. Arafat...the consequences would not be good ones. 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," he said.

Like many Israelis, the Bush administration views Arafat as tainted by terror and as an obstacle to a political settlement, but it cannot afford to stir anger throughout the Middle East as it tries desperately to stabilise the situation in Iraq.

Stung by the avalanche of criticism, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom declared that killing Arafat was "not official Israeli policy."

Opposition politicians on the left in Israel have also attacked the cabinet decision, arguing that expelling Arafat would win him support and enable him to travel from one world capital to the next, reporters in tow, championing the Palestinian cause.

Some officials say the government is preparing the ground for the ultimate removal of Arafat by softening international public opinion in stages, as it did when it progressively reoccupied much of Palestinian-controlled territory in the West Bank last year.

But does Sharon really want to see the back of the Palestinian leader, who he constantly blames for the ongoing violence and the inability to reach a political solution to the conflict?

"Sharon doesn't have a peace agenda and so it is comfortable for him to hide behind Arafat," Ali Jarbawi, professor of political science at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank told IPS.

If Sharon does ultimately remove Arafat - maybe after the next big suicide bomb attack û it could make a future political settlement even more remote than seems likely in the current violent climate. It would almost certainly lead to the demise of the Palestinian Authority.

Any leader who tried to fill the void in the wake of Israeli action against Arafat would be perceived as a traitor. Mahmoud Abbas, who recently resigned as prime minister after a power struggle with Arafat, warned a few months ago that if Arafat was deported, he would quit immediately. His replacement, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament Ahmed Qureia, would have to do the same.

Senior Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat who advocates a return to talks with Israel, painted a chilling scenario in which militant groups would rule Palestinian towns and villages if Arafat was killed by Israel, and the Palestinian Authority crumbled. "Probably the first thing they will do is come to my house and shoot me...and kill all Palestinian moderates," he said.

Jarbawi says this scenario is "exaggerated", but he agrees that deportation or killing of Arafat would signal the end of the Palestinian Authority. "Arafat is the glue holding the PA together," he says.

If Arafat were to go and the Palestinian Authority cease to exist, it could mean the end of the two-state solution to the conflict, which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel. This has been the basis of all internationally-backed peace plans since Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 War.

An end to the two-state option is viewed by many Israeli Jews as a mortal threat. It would leave Israel ruling over a growing Palestinian population --still a minority today but with a higher birth rate -- in a single geographic entity. Ultimately, Jews would have to confront a fateful choice: continue ruling over an Arab majority and cease to be a democracy, or extend political rights to all and cease being a Jewish state.

"The only thing saving Israel from facing the end of the two-state scenario is the existence of the Palestinian Authority," says Jarbawi. "Removing Arafat would make it clear to the Palestinians that there is no longer a two-state option. And then we can all meet in 20 years time in a single bi-national state."