OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 18 October 2003 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday appeared to rule out expelling Yasser Arafat, playing down an Israeli threat against the Palestinian leader that had drawn international outcry and US misgivings.
But in remarks to an Israeli newspaper Sharon stood firm on erecting a vast barrier in the West Bank, saying he was ready to defy US opposition despite Washington’s warnings that it might reduce $9 billion in loan guarantees to the Jewish state.
“Our calculations for years have been that expelling him would not be good for Israel,” Sharon told the conservative Jerusalem Post when asked about last month’s decision in principle by his security cabinet to “remove” Arafat.
Some hawkish members of Sharon’s Cabinet had even proposed killing Arafat, an idea the prime minister dismissed at the time and which Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom then ruled out. Israel has not said how or when it might take action against Arafat.
Responding to Sharon’s comments, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said: “This is not a retraction of the Israeli position to kill or deport Arafat. There’s an Israeli government decision to do so which wasn’t cancelled.”
With US backing, Israel accuses Arafat - largely confined to his West Bank headquarters for nearly two years — of fomenting violence in a three-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence, charges he denies. But Washington opposes harming him or exiling Arafat from Palestinian areas.
Asked if there could be a diplomatic breakthrough before Arafat is dead, Sharon replied: “I didn’t say dead, but in my opinion, as long as he is in control, the chance for progress (towards peace) is nonexistent.”
Similarly, controversial has been Israel’s construction of a barrier in the West Bank with plans to loop it around Jewish settlements inside occupied territory. Palestinians condemn it as a land-grab that prejudges borders that should be negotiated.
While backing Israel’s right to self-defense, Washington said it may deduct some of the project’s cost from $9 billion in loan guarantees approved by Congress. Sharon was unfazed. “I myself might tell the Americans that although we won’t be happy about it, if you decide to remove money, then do it. We need to build a fence in places where we know it is integral for Israel’s security,” he told the Jerusalem Post.
US centrality to Middle East diplomacy was thrown into focus on Wednesday by the bombing of a US Embassy convoy en route to Gaza City that killed three American guards. Palestinian security sources said a joint probe with the Federal Bureau of Investigation began yesterday with meetings in Gaza. FBI investigators were also using Israeli intelligence.
Meanwhile, Lebanon urged Washington yesterday to free itself from the grasp of a “Zionist lobby” it said threatened US interests through measures like a draft law that would sanction Syria for backing anti-Israel militants. The US House of Representatives voted this week to impose sanctions on Damascus, which holds broad political sway in Lebanon, until the White House deems it has stopped backing militants and pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
“President (Emile) Lahoud calls on the United States to liberate itself from the hegemony of the Zionist lobby on various positions including this bill, because this type of hegemony represents certain danger to the interests of the American people,” Lahoud’s office said in a statement.
The Syria Accountability Act also cites Syria’s military presence in Lebanon, where it poured in troops early in the 1975-1990 civil war, and has considerable influence within the presidency, army, security forces and judiciary. Thousands of demonstrators in northern Lebanon on Thursday demanded Lebanon cut its US ties over the bill, which would ban US trade with Syria in items that could be used in weapons programs and would allow for further sanctions.
