Word: arafats
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...sources familiar with the payouts, Hizballah has distributed $2.5 million in the West Bank over the past six months. These payouts are filling the gap left by Saddam Hussein's money man, who was nabbed in Ramallah by the Israelis a month ago. Under interrogation, Raked Salim implicated Yasser Arafat in the Iraqi leader's cash pipeline to the families of Palestinians killed in the intifadeh. Salim told interrogators he distributed $15 million of Saddam's money during the intifadeh. Families of suicide bombers were paid $25,000 each. A senior activist in the Iraqi-backed Arab Liberation Front, Salim...
...deadly missions. And there are less dramatic arrests every night, more than 2,000 since Tibon took over. Last month, an operation in the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus netted Lou'i Abdo, a prominent member of the Tanzim, part of the militant wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction. But Tibon's terrorist hunt isn't focused on the top suspects on the wanted list. Instead, he works from the bottom up. That way, he figures, the master-terrorists lose their support network and, when Israel eventually tracks them down, there'll be no deputies left...
...that's unlikely to change even if the U.S. pulls off regime change in Baghdad. As much as the U.S. - and many Palestinians too - would like to see regime change in Palestine, it won't happen so long as Israeli tanks keep the West Bank in lockdown and allow Arafat to portray himself as a martyr. And without a new Palestinian leadership, a Palestinian state and a lasting settlement in Israel will remain a mirage. That, of course, may be in Sharon's interests. But isn't it time to say that it's not in ours...
...Defense Donald Rumsfeld, one of Sharon's most ardent defenders in the Administration, has said it would be in "Israel's overwhelming best interests" not to launch any retaliatory strikes against Iraq. Through his aides, Bush also demanded last month that Israeli forces lift their siege of Yasser Arafat's compound and hold back in the West Bank and Gaza. It's working: Israeli officials now say they may withdraw the army from Hebron by the end of this week...
...that the Administration's top priority is to prevent Israeli intervention in the campaign against Iraq, in part because any Israeli strikes could also endanger U.S. forces in the region. In exchange, Sharon may insist that the Administration ease up on its recent criticism of Israeli policies toward Arafat...