Posted on 09/23/2002 6:52:42 AM PDT by ex-Texan
Defiant Arafat rejects Israel's demands
By Ross Dunn Herald Correspondent in Jerusalem and agencies
September 23 2002
Isolated by Israeli troops in the only building left standing in his battered West Bank headquarters, a defiant Yasser Arafat has called for international intervention.
The Palestinian leader, a virtual prisoner under the military siege, says his life is at risk. Israel continues to insist that it wants to isolate Mr Arafat, not to kill or exile him.
At least four Palestinians were reported killed yesterday and 30 more wounded in clashes with Israeli troops, following protests against the siege.
Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip late on Saturday night in protest at the destruction of Mr Arafat's Ramallah compound, where he has been trapped since Thursday night, when Israeli troops launched an offensive following a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed six people.
Mr Arafat has called on all Palestinians to halt their attacks, but says he will never give in to the Israeli demands for surrender of 50 wanted Palestinians, allegedly holed up inside the building.
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Apart from Mr Arafat's offices the entire headquarters is in ruins. Israeli troops have hoisted an Israeli flag next to the building.
Photos released by the Palestinian Authority showed a grim-looking Mr Arafat studying documents, with bottles of mineral water on his desk and his holstered gun placed behind him.
The European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, conveyed to Israel his "greatest concerns about the situation and particularly the siege of the Palestinian leadership". The White House called on Israel to consider the consequences of its actions but also said it had a right to defend itself against suicide bombings.
Mr Arafat spent hours calling world leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and Malaysia's Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, urging their support.
Mr Arafat told aides that the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, wanted to settle scores dating back to the war in Lebanon in 1982, when Mr Sharon, then defence minister, was refused permission to allow an Israeli sniper to fire while he had Mr Arafat in his sights in Beirut.
"Sharon wants to kill me because he wants to take revenge for what happened in Beirut in 1982," one Palestinian official quoted Mr Arafat as saying.
In an official statement, Mr Arafat said that he was willing to negotiate for peace but not to give up Palestinian aspirations to claim Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.
"We are ready for peace but not for capitulation and we will not give up Jerusalem or a grain of our soil, which are guaranteed to us by international law," he said.
Despite growing international pressure for Israel to withdraw its forces from Ramallah, Mr Sharon vowed to maintain the siege against the compound.
He said Mr Arafat must end what he called all aid to Palestinian terror groups. He also said Mr Arafat could not be a partner for negotiations.
Palestinian officials said Mr Sharon had rejected a US proposal to let Palestinian negotiators into the compound to start talks on ending the stalemate.
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They shouldn't! They need to end this once and for all.
I agree. (His best move now in my opinion - personally go up and take down that flag. If he died trying it would be the best exit he could ever hope for).
If he gets captured and sent to prison he'll have to run the qauntlet of Ali Bubba and the Forty Thieves.
Actually, I don't think he has any power left--he's a victim of the terrorist mess he created.
The Israelis are fed up with him and demanding the surrender of the terrorists. It's not that he wouldn't give them up. He can't. They'd kill him if he tried it. And, despite his assurances to the contrary, he doesn't want to die.
Personally, I think the most satisfying form of justice would be to see him torn apart by the very mob of psychopaths he created.
Honestly, it is the best exit for Arafat that I have seen in years. He would go out in a blaze of 'glory' in his and his peoples minds.
He will miss this opportunity as he has all others, that is the Arafat way.
It is unfortunate that diplomacy must extend to such people as they neither care about nor want peace, it is too lucrative to keep war alive. Bomb the little sob, gas him and be done with it! It is too late for more talk.
why is he allowed to make phone calls? The only commo should be a landline to the IDF.
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