Word: arafats
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...President Bush applied what Israeli officials described as "brutal" pressure on Ariel Sharon to back down over the siege of Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound. According to Haaretz, however, the U.S. may have provided some political cover for Arafat against the rightwing backlash led by Benjamin Netanyahu - Sharon reportedly told his cabinet that in exchange for letting Arafat go free, the Bush administration would support Israel in its confrontation with the United Nations over the Jenin fact-finding mission. Having backed down on Arafat, Sharon may be even more inclined to dig in his heels over Israel's objection...
...Under pressure from the Bush administration - or, at least, that part of it concerned to restore a peace process - Ariel Sharon is now suggesting that Arafat can leave his compound, and go anywhere in the West Bank, but without those besieged there with him. That would suggest Washington is pressuring the Israeli leader to end the standoff in Ramallah. But Arafat has little incentive to accept Sharon's conditions. Being besieged in his office has made him the most popular leader in the Middle East, while it's proving increasingly troublesome to Sharon. Meanwhile, the U.N. is pressing ahead with...
...building a border fence to separate Israel from the Palestinians. That, of course, dovetails to some extent with what the Arab League has proposed. And also with the thinking of Israel's leading military theorist, the Hebrew University's Martin Van Creveld, who argued recently that "Whether because Mr Arafat does not want to end terrorism or because he cannot do so, another Oslo Agreement is not on the cards. Therefore Israel's one salvation is to get out and build a wall - a wall so high not even the birds can fly over it - and permit the Palestinians...
...Despite Washington?s efforts to rekindle some form of peace process, Ariel Sharon appears determined to rid himself of Yasser Arafat and cement his own hold over the West Bank. The Israeli prime minister told the New York Times that he may consider letting Arafat leave his Ramallah office and go to Gaza, saying "with Arafat, no one will be able to make peace." But right now Arafat isn?t looking for a new address, and Palestinian leaders scoffed at the suggestion - after all, Sharon himself is as much a prisoner of the current standoff in Ramallah as Arafat...
...Theater of the Absurd at Arafat HQ (April...