OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 22 December 2003 — US President George W. Bush told an Israeli journalist that “we must get rid of” Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily said yesterday.
Bush’s comments came in a brief exchange with the paper’s correspondent during a Christmas party in Washington, several hours after a keynote speech by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday in which he outlined plans for unilateral disengagement from peace negotiations with the Palestinians. The US government has boycotted Arafat.
