Arab leaders saying goodbye to Arafat

WorldNetDaily ^ | 11 April 2002 | GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT INTELLIGENCE BRIEF

[flamefront]

Quietly discussing with Bush possibility of exile to Egypt, Morocco

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Posted: April 11, 2002
5:00 p.m. Eastern

Editor's note: WorldNetDaily brings readers exclusive, up-to-the-minute global intelligence news and analysis from Geostrategy-Direct, a new online newsletter edited by veteran journalist Robert Morton and featuring the "Backgrounder" column compiled by Bill Gertz. Geostrategy-Direct is a subscription-based service produced by the publishers of WorldTribune.com, a free news service frequently linked by the editors of WorldNetDaily.

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

Forget the rhetoric of such leaders as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan's King Abdullah and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Quietly, they are saying their last goodbyes to Yasser Arafat.

Arab diplomatic sources say Arab countries from moderate Morocco to extreme Syria no longer have use for Arafat. Indeed, Arafat has fomented too much unrest against Arab regimes to be regarded as a friend. Just about every pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Arab world has been used to attack the ruling power.

So, Arab leaders are discussing with the Bush administration the prospect that Arafat will be sent into exile. Egypt has said it will take Arafat. Morocco is another address.

Some Arab leaders have already held contacts with likely successors. Arafat does not leave any one likely successor. Indeed, he has spent a lifetime preventing such a prospect.

Instead, the assessment is that Arafat will be replaced by a group of Palestinian political and security chiefs. They eventually will be endorsed by the Palestine National Council and perhaps by the Palestinian Legislative Council in an effort to grant the new leaders a form of legitimacy.

One proposal, the sources say, is to elect a Palestinian prime minister who is separate from the Palestine Liberation Organization. The idea is to have a Palestinian administrator who would be responsible solely to the residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip rather than the millions of Palestinian refugees in the Arab world.

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[flamefront]

This is one occasion I can agree with Arab leaders.

[tallhappy]

If this is true, then Bush is not blowing it.

If Powell is going to personally bring this news to Arafat (in essence serve the eviction notice), then the Bush administration can't be praised enough (well that's an exageration but makes the point).

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Arab leaders saying goodbye to Arafat

Don't tease me!

[Argus]

So this is why Yasser looks so sad when he's on his cel phone.

[miamimark]

If true, I wonder if this would stop the suiciderers. What would happen if after blaming Arafat for all the killing, he goes into exile and the murder continues?

Also, didn't Powell do the same in Haiti?

[terilyn]

I hope this is true, then we just have to pray that Arafat doesn't bring his destructive behavior with him to Egypt or Morocco. His pattern has been to travel with the terrorists. Wasn't he evicted from Jordan and Lebanon for much the same reasons?

[jobedo]

All I can say is wow---I would have never thought this one up. Let's hope its true.

[terilyn]

Ping to you. Maybe this will keep the flame of hope burning.

[usconservative]

I don't buy this for a second. The the hatred the Arab world has for Israel runs so deep, they send their own children in to die as suicide bombers murderers.

Wishful thinking on WND's part.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Maybe France will take him (after all, they are derserving) ...he can life with his wife & child.

[Dog Gone]

Do you think this report is credible? I don't.

[G Larry]

If this happens, Bush coat tails will sweep Republicans back into control of the Senate!

Then the attack on Iraq can wait until December.

[monkeywrench]

Whoever took him in, would have to assume some responsibility for him.

[HockeyPop]

Whoever, whatever substitutes for Arafat will see the world fawning over this new Palestinian leadership. He/She/it/they will be viewed through even rosier lensed glasses. Heads up!

[McGavin999]

I don't see how any of these leaders can accept him into their country. He'll just continue to cause problems where-ever he goes. They'd have to put him on a desert island somewhere where there is no cell phones and no access to his terrorist buddies.

[foreshadowed at waco]

I so hope this is true...although I understand that the individual leader of a country is not the country itself, I do believe that a good person surrounds himself with good people and that an evil person chooses other bad people for his entourage...I believe that Yasser Arafat is an evil man and must be removed...I also entertain the hope that GW is a good man and will always choose a correct course for our country.

I pray for our Israeli allies during this time of terrible uncertainty. They suffer not only because their people are being killed and injured, but also, like Americans, they do not love to engage in destruction and death but have been forced to take military action to protect themselves from murderers and fanatics.

[tallhappy]

A quick check has London Sunday Telegraph and Jerusalem Post are the sources for this.

He'd be exiled to Morrocco -- the first place Powell went.

Still, sounds to good to be true.

[terilyn]

It's hard to imagine that either Egypt or Morocco would want the stress taking Arafat in would create. Maybe Powell is delivering not only the message that he's moving, but he'd better do it quietly and behave himself because his only other option is to let Sharon have at him.

And, IMHO, for all his declarations of wishing for martyrdom, I don't believe it for a minute. He's turned tail and run before when things got too hot. He'll run again to save his own sorry butt. He only likes blowing up young people for "The sake of Islam". If it comes down to dying or living quietly in a country with a rational leader, my money's on the latter.

[BluH2o]

Arafat looks like a rat, acts like one, and deserves the guillotine. Failing that ... this piece of excrement should be banished to some remote island in the south Atlantic. Somewhere where his cellphone doesn't work.