Special Report: Dayenu — Enough!

ARAFAT

from page 17

ate Arafat's double game of condemn-
ing terror while encouraging the terror-
ists or to allow the Palestinian leader to
subvert every attempt to reach a cease-
fire, including the latest mission by
U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni in March.
The trouble is that Sharon doesn't
have very good options. He feels he
can't kill Arafat, because he promised
the American administration that he
wouldn't. Sharon made the pledge in
his first meeting as prime minister
with President Bush in March 2000
— and, he says, the Americans have
gotten him to repeat it in every high
level meeting since.
In addition, killing Arafat could
inflame not only the Palestinian territo-
ries but the entire Middle East, and turn
world opinion squarely against Israel.

Time Restraints

Sharon can't isolate Arafat indefinitely
because world public opinion also isn't
likely to stand for that, and because he
has promised to pull Israeli forces out
of Palestinian towns and cities as soon
as the current military operation is over.
He also can't expel Arafat unless the
Israeli Cabinet relents — though he
publicly stated Tuesday that he would
offer Arafat a "one-way ticket" out of
Ramallah into exile. Arafat rejected the
idea outright.
In an attempt to simply circumvent
Arafat, Sharon began meetings in
February with other Palestinian lead-
ers, including Ahmed Karia, known as
Abu Alaa, the speaker of the
Palestinian legislative council;
Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu
Mazen, Arafat's deputy in the PLO;
and Arafat's confidant and economic
adviser Mohammed Rashid.
But those figures very quickly —
and publicly — made clear that the
meetings had been sanctioned by
Arafat, and that they.would report
back to him. Sharon's ploy did noth-
ing to weaken Arafat's hold on power.
Sharon's problem is this: If Arafat is
not killed, expelled or replaced by
alternative Palestinian leaders, and if he
emerges unscathed from his isolation
in Ramallah, he would win an enor-
mous prestige-enhancing victory, and
Sharon would have to eat humble pie.
So now Sharon has started telling
visitors, like European Union official
Javier Solana, that he can see the "iso-
lated" Arafat on one condition: That
he take the Palestinian leader with him
into exile when he leaves the country.
If Solana or anyone else agrees,
Sharon will worry about persuading
the cabinet. ❑

qm*

4/5

2002

26

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