Pressure Mounts in Israel for Arafat to Be Exiled

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Pressure is mounting in Israel for the government to exile Palestinian President Yasser Arafat after a suicide bomber from the West Bank killed 19 people in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

Israel's security cabinet decided in principle last month to "remove" the former guerrilla leader after declaring him responsible for Islamic militants' attacks against Israelis.

Israel has not said how or when it might pluck Arafat from his West Bank headquarters, half demolished after army raids, and acknowledges that an assault could endanger his life. Arafat has said he would rather die than give himself up.

Such an assault could provoke an international outcry and it is not clear where Arafat would be cast into exile. He has in the past taken refuge in Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia but such states would be unlikely to welcome him now.

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bunch of "suicide bombs" at Arafat's garrison from helicopter gunships.

Something they have been already doing for decades anyway..

I'm curious really, can somebody actually explain what good is expected besides robbing the Israelis of their favourite whipping boy?

Revolutions are suppressed from the top tier of statist-bureaucrat leeches like Arafat, not encouraged by them as the assumption suggests.. besides, didn't they learn from the failures in Lebanon? Every time they killed a Hizbullah leader, a more capable figure replaced him and was accompanied by a redoubled commitment by the Lebanese people. Why can't governments at least learn from their own history?

I am sure that would reduce the suicide bombings and anger among Palestinians. Not! I can bet it would only make things much worse. Anyway it is also a question of how much Arafat actually has control over various fractions. Israel surely loves to blaim the Palestinian authority for every single attack. Then no matter who replaces Arafat they would say the same (blame them) for any Palestinian government and leader. What if they can't do much about those attacks? In cases such as the woman retaliating for the loss of her love ones their is little one can do or know about it. But I guess that's just too much to think about...