Israel fumes as Arafat basks in international limelight

I don't know what the Israelis hope to achieve by "removing" Arafat, it'll just turn him into a martyr and cause more palestinians to join his cause. Hence MORE violence. No good can come of it.

news.independent.co.uk...

While Yasser Arafat staged his latest show for worldwide television at his Maqata headquarters in Ramallah yesterday, Israeli eyes were watching, unseen, from the eighth floor of an office block 400 yards away, across a rubble-strewn wasteland.

Just before 1.30pm - less than 24 hours after the Israeli Cabinet had vowed to "remove" him - the Palestinian Authority President walked down the steps outside his sandbagged, half-demolished office and slowly walked the 40 yards to Friday prayers in the compound's meeting room in a crush of aides, acolytes and, above all, camera crews.

Never mind that he had reportedly stormed out of this very room the day before, after being told by General Nasser Yusef, Gaza's former security chief and newly nominated as the Palestinian Authority's Interior Minister, that he was "the most incompetent revolutionary leader in history".

He is "the most incompetent revolutionary leader in history".

He, and his followers have pushed back the creation of a Palestinian state decades, if not all but it made it impossible. There can be no peace in that region as long as Arafat resides there.... However, exile would not stop his funneling and command of various terror groups... He needs to stop breathing....

Originally posted by Gazrok
He needs to stop breathing....

And he will when Israel decides that it is in their interest to stop him from breathing.

At the moment, he is serving a purpose. Somebody has to get the blame for the failiure of the roadmap.

Arafat is going to dig himself a hole. Israel have cornered him.

The fact that no one notices his blatant double talk is funny. He consistently says one thing in English and then the opposite in Arabic. But no one ever pays attention to that. Israel's vote was stupid. They exiled him symbolically. Who cares. They shouldn't have called more attention to him. Israel's mistake here.

Symbolic yes but of what exactly is another story, its very possible a threat. Will Arafat be alive by the end of the year? To be honest I am not certain.

Arafat keeps running his mouth and that "bullseye" on his forehead will continue to be there:
"Arafat marks 'cursed day the State of Israel was founded"
Jerusalem Post ^ | May. 16, 2003 | THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF

"Yasser Arafat commemorated Nakba Day, the day Palestinians bewail the founding of the State of Israel, with a harsh speech at the Palestinian Legislative Council.

"In the name of Allah, those expelled from their homes will return to them," he said, referring to the Palestinian's demand for a right of return.

New Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' speech was cancelled, Ynet reports. Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei ("Abu Ala") blamed Israel's travel restrictions.

"On this cursed day, the State of Israel was founded, under force of arms and as part of an imperialist conspiracy, which led to the eviction of our nation into dispersion and camps, amid acts of slaughter and horrible crimes," Arafat stated."



This was from an interview with Rudy Guiliani in Esquire Magazine this month. It's right on the money:

"I don't think any person can negotiate peace in the Middle East - whether it's the president, the secretary of state, the prime minister of Israel, or anyone at the UN. It's a long term changing of minds and viewpoints. Sometimes a big, big issue has to be reduced to small ones that you can solve.

Look at the Palestinian Authority and separate it for a second from issues with Israel or the United States. Where's the justice within the Palestinian Authority? Is there a system of real laws? Is there a system of respect for the human rights of Palestinians? Or religious freedom? Or electedleadership? Sometimes when terror is putting a cause that is arguably justifiable on the world state, you have to ask yourelf: Is it really about justice? Or is it about power?

The movement has to be toward justice. If you're having a border dispute with another country and you want justice from that other country or the world community, the question is: Are you providing justice for your own people? Therefore, if we solve the border dispute, and we give you more territory, have we contributed to world peace because this is a significant step along the way to creating a decent society? Or is it just another step in enlarging the pwer of a terrorist state?

We kept wanting to trust Arafat, and it turned out he was giving us any number of indications that he couldn't be trusted. There was no cessation or reduction in terrorism. There was no establishment of any kind of democratic institutions or a more mature government. When he got the Nobel peace prize, my reaction was exactly what it is today: THIS IS ABSURD.

If the Palestinians want to go from authority to state, then they should have to beceme a stabilizing force. What's the sense of going from authority to state if the state's going to forment terrorism? We don't need another state that's going to forment terrorism. We need a state to create stability."

The man (Arafat) speaks with "forked-tongue!"

Roadmap To Peace? First we need a Roadmap To Mindset Change!!!

regards
seekerof

[Edited on 14-9-2003 by Seekerof]

Sounds as close to the truth as I've ever heard.
The mindset issue, to me, has always been a big one.
As said above Arafat speaks with a forked tounge. In English he will always say "we want peace, we want to negotiate" but in Arabic he is far more inciteful. It is Arafat in his duties as head of the PLO and more recently President of the Palestinian Authority who approves schoolbooks saying "We must drive Israel into the sea." Not "we want the west bank and gaza like pre-1967 time." In the school books they teach the children that they should demand the whole damn thing. When you're brought up like that, how can peace be easy?