GAZA CITY/WASHINGTON, 9 February — Israel launched raids in the West Bank yesterday after the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ruled out Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as a peace partner. And the Palestinian Authority welcomed the US refusal to boycott Arafat but called for a more active US role.
In Washington, Sharon failed in a meeting on Thursday to convince US President George W. Bush to boycott Arafat and rely on other Palestinian leaders for peace negotiations. Arafat "is not and never will be a partner. He’s out of play," he said, calling for an "alternative Palestinian leadership."
Bush turned down the call but urged Arafat to exert more efforts to combat terrorism. "I assured the prime minister that we would continue to keep pressure on Mr. Arafat to convince him that he must take serious, concrete, real steps to reduce terrorist activities in the Middle East," Bush said.
Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina said Bush’s position "constitutes a step in the right direction, but it must be followed by other steps especially to stop Israel’s aggression and its siege of the Palestinian people."
Back home, Israeli tanks moved into the Palestinian town of Nablus and a nearby village, in a second day of Israeli aggression after an attack on a Jewish settlement. The army occupied a building in Nablus, where Israeli helicopter gunships fired on a PA intelligence office late Thursday.
Israeli tanks yesterday also entered the West Bank village of Tamoun, to the north of Nablus. Three Palestinians and an Israeli woman died in two separate incidents yesterday, on a relatively quiet day in the 16-month-old Palestinian uprising. Two Palestinians were killed when their vehicle exploded in northern Israel, public television reported, quoting police sources.
