Debate on Arafat Stalls U.S. Policy, Aides to Bush Say

WASHINGTON, May 25 — An intense debate among President Bush and his top advisers over whether to press for the removal of Yasir Arafat as the leader of the Palestinian Authority has effectively frozen the nation's Middle East policy, according to some administration officials.

It has also prompted George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, to delay his mission to the region until the policy is worked out.

For more than two weeks, Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell have said that Mr. Tenet will go to the Middle East to work to restructure Palestinian security forces after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West Bank. But no date was set, and until now, there was no coherent explanation for the delay.

In the meantime, the White House has decided to send William Burns, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, to the region. He is expected to leave early next week for Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Word of the debate in the White House has reached Mr. Arafat's senior advisers, one of whom has been in Washington for two weeks arguing Mr. Arafat's case in the State Department and the Pentagon. In an unusual meeting about a week ago, that adviser, Muhammad Rashid, debated the "centrality" of Mr. Arafat's role with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz, who has been one of the critics of Mr. Arafat in the administration.

President Bush tried to settle the issue of Mr. Arafat's leadership in two meetings of his principal advisers before he left for Moscow on Wednesday, administration officials said, and Mr. Bush took part in the second meeting. But lengthy discussions failed to resolve the question of whether the United States is prepared to accept Mr. Arafat based on his pledge to undertake extensive changes, intended to tighten security, end corruption and broaden the Palestinian leadership.

At the same time, given the current political ferment in the Palestinian territories that has given rise to strong criticism of Mr. Arafat among Palestinians, the delay gives the administration time to assess the political challenges that Mr. Arafat is beginning to face at home, officials said.

"The Americans are watching the situation," said a senior Arab foreign policy adviser whose government has been in close contact with Secretary Powell. "And we do not feel they are off course. The most important thing going on right now is the dialogue among the Palestinians themselves.

"Arafat is admitting mistakes and he is reassessing how to be a better Arafat if he wants to stay," the adviser said.

But one pro-Israeli lobbyist who has been tracking the administration's debate said that Mr. Bush and his advisers "have got themselves tied in a knot."

Mr. Bush is described as being inclined to work with Mr. Arafat, in collaboration with moderate Arab leaders who put pressure on him to make changes. But Mr. Bush has repeatedly spoken of Mr. Arafat's need to fulfill the expectations of Western and moderate Arab leaders.

On Tuesday, before leaving on his trip, Mr. Bush spoke with a number of European reporters and said that Mr. Arafat had "had chance after chance, and by failing to lead, he has really let the Palestinians down." Later he said, "Somebody said, has he earned your respect? I said, he never had my respect, because he let his people down."

The debate in the Bush administration has divided along familiar lines, officials said, with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney pressing for a policy that would undermine Mr. Arafat's control over the Palestinian Authority and pave the way for a change in leadership.

Secretary Powell and Mr. Tenet are said to argue that there is no alternative to Mr. Arafat. They advocate keeping him under pressure to deliver on his pledges of change. According to this view, political and economic reconstruction of the Palestinian Authority would set the stage for statehood and the gradual transition to broader leadership.

The notion of working with Mr. Arafat was implicit in the agreement reached between Mr. Bush and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah at the end of April at the president's ranch in Texas. They discussed a division of labor whereby Arab leaders would bring pressure on Mr. Arafat to undertake fundamental security and political changes, while Mr. Bush would bring pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel to negotiate with an overhauled Palestinian leadership for new security arrangements and the framework to create a Palestinian state.

One Saudi political adviser said that the prince felt he had brought Mr. Arafat around, but that Mr. Bush had yet to bring Mr. Sharon around.

"The crown prince feels that he has delivered his guy, and now the president needs to deliver his guy," the adviser said. "Arafat has made his commitment on political and security reforms, and we want to hold his feet to the fire, but unless the process moves forward, we could lose the momentum and that could spell disaster."

After the meeting in Texas, Mr. Sharon came to Washington seeking to discredit Mr. Arafat with evidence linking him to groups that carried out suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. After Mr. Sharon's departure, a senior Israeli military official came to Washington with the message that Israel saw no "utility" in the Tenet mission because it was intended to rebuild a Palestinian security force under Mr. Arafat.

Palestinian officials said it would be difficult for Mr. Tenet to undertake serious discussions with Mr. Arafat about security changes if the administration remained uncommitted either to working with Mr. Arafat or to pushing forward on negotiations to create a Palestinian state.

One specialist on Middle Eastern affairs in the administration said there was strong concern that during times of indecision, "events move on," especially toward the return of extremist violence. "And events are not going to wait for us to make decisions," this official said.

The State Department has yet to announce the trip of Mr. Burns, the assistant secretary of state, next week to the Middle East. There was little expectation in the government that he would be able to accomplish much while the debate goes on among the Bush advisers.

Mr. Sharon and his supporters in Washington have been pressing the Bush administration to insist on Mr. Arafat's removal or sidelining. Arab leaders have warned of the dangers of any frontal assault on Mr. Arafat. They warn that any steps that would appear as an American effort to orchestrate Mr. Arafat's overthrow could usher in a more radical leadership.

Some Arab leaders, at the same time, are willing to support a gradual political transition that would, through democratic means, effectively move Mr. Arafat out of his central role over time, some Arab diplomatic sources have said.

A White House spokesman declined to comment on the debate, which other administration officials spoke of, adding that a number of Arab and Israeli diplomats had been briefed on the administration's failure to reach a decision before Mr. Bush left town.

The pro-Israeli lobbyist who described the administration as being tied in a knot, said, "they need the Arab states to help with any transition" but the Arab leaders "don't want to be the ones who say that Arafat has to go."

But Arab diplomats have expressed concern that the delay caused by the debate was playing into the hands of extremists.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whom President Bush invited to Washington this month after Mr. Sharon's visit, is said to be concerned that he is arriving at a White House that has not made up its mind, or worse, that may seek Egypt's assistance in orchestrating the removal of Mr. Arafat. Such a course would be politically lethal for Mr. Mubarak at a time when Mr. Arafat's standing in the Arab world has soared.

During two weeks of consultations at the State Department, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, and with American Jewish leaders, the Palestinian aide, Mr. Rashid, said Mr. Arafat was committed to overhauling the Palestinian Authority and its security services.

He also submitted a lengthy list of questions to a senior administration official about whether the Bush administration remained committed to a peace conference this summer, asking whether the goal of that conference would be to create a "time line" for negotiations for Palestinian statehood and what the "milestones" of the Bush policy would be. After days of waiting, Mr. Rashid was scheduled to leave the country today without receiving any answers.

Put an explosive vest on Arafat and touch it off by remote radio if there is another homicide bomber. Any time, any place.... boom. Let him live with that for a while. In bed with Susha and Hillary, at the beach, on the pot.... boom. Any time, any place.....boom.

The best thing to do with Arafat is what we did for many years, until Carter screwed up: ignore him, refuse to talk to him, pretend he doesn't exist. It's not our business to decide who is the leader of the Palestinians. All we can say is that Arafat is not a man with whom any honest person or nation can deal, and it's not very clear whether the Palestinians as a whole can be dealt with either. He is a lying, terrorist murderer, whose word is worthless. He is not someone who can be negotiated with.

Why is this so difficult?

Up until now, I was willing to cut Tenet some slack. But he needs to be sacked, and Powell needs to be urged to suddenly be obsessed with "spending time with his children."

This is absurd and of no consequence. If Arafat cared about his people he would restructure the government with checks and balances, and then resign and hold new elections.

Meanwhile, there should be no debate about what Israel should do. They should pound the terrorists until the terrorists are no more.

It's not difficult and I agree with you. It's up to the Palestinians to decide who should lead them. If they allow this scumbucket to ruin their national aspirations and wreak havoc on thier cities and spirit away all their resources, that's their problem. They voted for him in the scam of the election went along with the charade that he was democratically elected.

Meanwhile, Israel should not be expected to "understand" the situation and be restrained because the enemy lives under a corrupt evil dictatorship. The should be free to do what they need to do to keep their citizens safe.

I made it about halfway through this before I stopped to think that the slimes only writes either fiction or lies. Then I decided to enjoy the rest of the evening.

Powell needs to be urged to suddenly be obsessed with "spending time with his children."

Indeed -- especially since he and his playmates at State have decided that the terrorist-supporting Muslim organizations in the U.S. should decide how to present America's new "image" to the Muslim world in Uncle Sam’s Makeover

Is it in the US interest to debate who should be their puppet in the Mideast? Before you can get a lasting peace you have to have a leader the people in that area respect and support. We have fallen into that trap in the Balkans and there is no need to repeat the same mistake in the Middle East.

The Palestinians have to determine who they want to follow. If they want a leader to continue the Intafada, let the Israelis wipe them out. If they want a leader who will accommodate peace with Israel, they will follow him. We have no business in trying to decide the Palis fate without their consent. Trying to mediate a dispute between two parties that want to fight will guarantee becoming an enemy of both.

Until the traitorist Saudi cabal in the State Department is removed en masse, this country will continued to be mortally threatened and the people will be shielded from the truth.

The Saudi-paid traitors in our government are as great a threat to this nation as Cold War Communists ever were.

All politicians should boycott the following Saudi-paid consultants and media advisors this election cycle:
Qovis Communications
Sandler-Innocenzi
Patton Boggs
Hill and Knowlton
Burson-Marsteller
Lobbyist Jamie Gallagher

Arafats own people will likely off him if we and the Isaeli's keep the pressure on for reform.

I still would like to know who thes un-named aids and misc. sources are so that these stories can be verified.

Well, I see that there were two people in a meeting, Mohammed Rashid and Paul Wolfowitz. Rashid works for Arafat.

Obviously, Wolfowitz isn't talking to the Times, so the answer to this little puzzle is that Rashid, Arafat's lackey, spoke to the Times.

I imagine that Rashid told the reporter what HIS version of events, saying things like "Mr. X told me this" and the Times takes it and runs with it.

In other words, this is all spin from Arafat's people. It is also hogwash.

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