Israel Ready to Oust Arafat if Order Given-Report

The Israeli army is ready to "remove" Palestinian President Yasser Arafat if the government gives the order, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported on Thursday, citing a senior military source.


The report in the right-wing daily, which recently editorialized in favor of killing Arafat, followed a decision in principle by Israel's security cabinet last month to oust the Palestinian leader. The ministers did not say how or when.


The Israeli threat against Arafat, a 74-year-old symbol of Palestinian nationalism, sparked an international outcry and drew U.S. opposition.


"We have presented plans showing the risks and the chances of the operation itself, including the options to remove him alive or not," the Post quoted the source as saying.


"The government has to make a decision to allow the army to act. The army is ready," the military source was quoted as saying. The newspaper did not provide further details. The army declined comment

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031023/wl_nm/mideast_arafat_exile_dc_2

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The weasel's cage is shrinking. I would advise Arafat supporters to clear the area if the time comes. There is no need for others to be lost.

their natural lives if they think this will stem one iota of terrorism.

From what I can see, all Sharon has done is painted a target on buses and coffee shops.

Israel is ready to murder Arafat.

This will be, by far, the worst decision Sharon has ever made, and that's saying a lot, given the number of bad decisions the obese third-rate war criminal has made to date.

He will regret this, and that's a guarantee.

So now it is official: the government of Israel has decided to assassinate Yasser Arafat.

Not any more to "exile". Not any more to "expel or kill". Simply to "remove".

Of course, the intention is not to remove him to another country. Nobody seriously believes that Yasser Arafat will raise his hands and allow himself to be marched off. He and his men will be killed "during the exchange of fire". This would not be the first time.

Anyone familiar with Ariel Sharon can see how things will develop from now on. He will wait for his opportunity. It may come any minute, or after a week, a month, a year. He is patient. When he decides to do something, he is ready to wait, but he won't deviate from his goal.

The murder of Arafat will bring about an historic change in the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian people. Since the 1973 war, both peoples have been accepting the idea of a compromise between the two great national movements. In the Oslo agreement, after a process initiated by Yasser Arafat practically alone, the Palestinians gave up 78% of the country that was called Palestine before 1948. They agreed to set up their state in the remaining 22%. Only Arafat had the moral and political standing necessary to carry the people with him, much as Ben-Gurion was able to convince our people to accept the partition plan.

Even in the sharpest crises since then, both peoples have remained steadfast in their belief that in the end there will be a compromise.

The assassination of Arafat will put an end to this, perhaps forever. We shall return to the stage of "all or nothing": Greater Israel or Greater Palestine, throwing the Jews into the sea or pushing the Palestinians out into the desert.

The Palestinian Authority will disappear. Israel will take over all the Palestinian territories, with all the economic and human stress involved. The "de luxe occupation", which allowed Israel a free hand in the territories, with the world paying the bills, will be over.

Violence will reign supreme. It will be the sole language of both peoples. In Jerusalem and Ramallah, Haifa and Hebron, Tulkarm and Tel-Aviv, fear will stalk the streets. Every mother who sends her children to school will be consumed by worry until they come back. Terror on this side and on that side, an ever widening spiral of violence, automatic and incessant escalation.

The earthquake will not be limited to the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. The whole Arab world will erupt. Arafat the shahid, the martyr, the hero, the symbol, will become an all-Arab, all-Muslim mythological figure. His name will become a battle-cry for all revolutionaries from Indonesia to Morocco, a slogan for all religious and nationalist underground organizations.

Doesn't Sharon understand all this? Of course he does. The political nobodies who constitute the government may be unable to see beyond the end of their noses, just like blinkered generals, whose only solution is to kill and destroy. But Sharon knows what the consequences are likely to be - and he relishes them.

Sharon wants to conclude the historic clash between Zionism and the Palestinian people with a clear-cut decision: solid Israeli control over the entire country and a situation that will compel the Palestinians to get out.

http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article267.html

You speak as though there is peace now. Israel if fighting a terrorist enemy. His removal may pave the way for a moderate. He impedes the peace process.

"His removal may pave the way for a moderate."

Sharon is the Weasel.

Thanks for posting that, Saudade. How any sane person could defend Sharon's aggression after reading through it is unimaginable.

It is possible his life would be spared. It is difficult to object to ending his reign.

Sounds pretty much like a gaurantee nothing much will happen any time soon. Operations like this do not emerge to the newspapers prior to their execution. This is simply red meat for the faithful. The real intention is likely to wait for nature to take its course; there are too many endorsments of Arafat's health emerging recently from Palestine Authority spokespeople to think it is anything but poor.

Should Israel decide to act, would they attempt to take him alive?

He is probably less trouble dead in Ramallah than live in Tel Aviv: the decision to try him or not, or where to put him otherwise, might prove awkward.

This sort of thing is simply to give the illusion of action, while marking time until the barrier is complete and Gaza can be invaded full bore.

You speak of Gaza being invaded full bore. What are you suggesting will come about?

It will look much like the last time Sharon "pacified" the place back in '71 using wholesale murder, repression and home destruction. A key feature will of course be bulldozer and they will be used with the same lies as always the way they were used in Jenin. They will need to "broaden" roads, so they will be aimed down rows on either side, probably a few thousand homes will go in this way. Massive expulsions to the Sinai. A bunch of assassinations.

It is my view that an invasion of Gaza has long been contemplated, as a means to break the power of Hamas, the leading jihadist organization, which has its strongest base of power in that quarter. This would require a typical urban suppression campaign, dividing the area in zones held isolate from one another, and combed individually to the last house, for known militants, arms, and the like. The spectacle would not be particularly pretty, but there is a reasonable chance it would be successful in its aim.

Sharon has, remember, cleared Gaza once before: in the period after '67, he was charged with breaking Arafat's power there, in the time when the latter would boast that "Israel rules by day, but I rule by night." That campaign was largely successful in breaking the P.L.O. guerrilla organization there, although it did not alter the great discontent with Israeli control in the place. Sharon, on many of his policies today, seems to be harkening back to the glory times of his youth.

Completion of a security barrier to isolate Israel from the Arab Palestinian areas west of the Jordan would be very useful in a campaign against Gaza. It would greatly reduce the number of soldiers needed to ward off the expected counter-stroke of wide-spread bomb attacks against the civilian populace of Israel by Arab Palestinian irregulars in support of their beleagured Gaza comrades. A Gaza campaign along the anticipated lines would take a great many soldiers and a good deal of time, and wholesale calling to the colors of reservists for more than a few weeks has inherent difficulties for any Israeli government. Therefore, the economy of force offered by the barrier would make an important contribution.

that such an operation would be disasterous or have potential benefits?

Think Jenin with a pair of zeroes added, not only to the numbers of dead and injured on all sides, but to the degree of vitriol by both opponents and supporters.

It would not meet any great opposition from me: put bluntly, it is my desire to see Hamas liquidated, and my conviction that doing so is in the best interests of all, including the people of Arab Palestine. Who does it, and within broad limits, even how it is done, does not make a lot of difference to me, providing it actually is done.

To attempt and fail would strike me as marginally worse than to succeed to accompaniment of real atrocity.

My own preference for the destruction of that organization would be to alter the political conditions in which it thrives, to render it genuinely unpopular among the people of Arab Palestine, so that these would assist in the rounding up of its hard core. It seems to me that a settlement along the lines of the recent "Geneva" proposals would be most helpful towards this strategy. Guerrilla wars are more political than military clashes, and it is very difficult to gain decisive victory in them by purely military means.

on the liquidation of Hamas. There can be no question it would be a positive development. Surely we would prefer the destruction of Hamas come about from the Palestinians. However, given a lack of ability or will to do so, perhaps such an operation by Israel would be constructive. It is my belief that some observers of this conflict actually support Hamas and other terrorist organizations to some extent, in that they believe they benefit the Palestinians, or their hope for a state. Oh, my.

won't destroy it for long.

Resistance of any form, terroristic or legitimate, is very hard to destroy using military means; in such a situation as this one, it is essentially impossible to do so.

Since this operation would accomplish little good (since Sharon is involved, political means will not be used to any real extent) while at the same time involve use of means that are far from humanitarian, I see no reason for any real support of it whatsoever.

of ending Palestinian suffering. It does not appear the ending of resistance will come about internally.

Political means such as removing the settlements, reducing the incursions, and improving freedom of movement - all actions the GOI could take - would be very helpful in stopping terrorism.

At the very least, removal of the settlements - which have no security purpose whatsoever - would help reduce terrorism.

History has not shown terrorism subsides with Israeli withdrawl. The ultimate goal of these groups is the destruction of Israel. The settlements are now a fact. We need to deal with reality.

In the mid and late 1990s, very few Israelis died. The reason for this was that peace appeared to be at hand, and popular suport for teh terrorist organizations was practically non-existent. Now, though, the Palestinians are rightfully cynical.

Israel's military solutions haven't worked very well, any more than Russia's in Chechnya or America's in Vietnam - and more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In order for a war on terror to be successful, non-military means are neccesary to solve what is at its heart a political and domestic problem.

Bush has failed to do that, and Sharon has failed to do that.

Indeed, Sir. One must keep waving the red flag
in front of the bull lest its attention drift
somewhere less desirable.

It would seem an effort would be made to pursue
such an enterprise while the attentions of the target
and his supporters were diverted elsewhere. A really
large massacre would not seem, ah, productive.

that the murder..yes i use the term murder, of a 74 year old ailing man would ,in fact, diminish the horrific cycle of violence perpetrated by both sides in this conflict. Most fair minded people (that I know anyway) would abhor such an action by Israel..the recognition of both Israel and Palestine to exist peacefully would not be enhanced by this action..

the rules of this board stop me from commenting is beyond me.

and put on trial to account for the millions (or billions) he has stolen from his people. This is a terrorist who has shown that he will do whatever is necessary to undermine peace and profit personally off the misery of his own people.

I am continually amazed that the Irsaelis have left him unharmed for so long. I will shed no tears at his demise, however it comes.

And Sharon should be treated the same as well!

"removing" Arafat is going to pave the way to peace must be dreaming.

It is possible Israel's PM can't stand the thought of having to leave, being gone, before Arafat, who has been leader of his people for a very long time.