- RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP)
- Palestinian officials are increasingly worried that Israel will use the
opportunity of a US war on Iraq to launch widescale operations against
the Palestinian Authority, sweeping it and its leader Yasser Arafat into
exile.
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- "We fear Israel will force president Arafat and
the members of the Palestinian administration into exile and displace the
population in an internal transfer operation," said Mamduh Nawfal,
an adviser to the Palestinian leader.
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- He added that "these operations depend on the American
administration's approval."
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- "These operations will not be easy and will create
an atmosphere of anarchy which will further complicate the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict," Nawfal told AFP.
-
- Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads
the hardliners in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party had said in
November that a US strike on Iraq would provide an ideal opportunity to
oust Arafat.
-
- Such an operation would "enable us to get rid of
Saddam Hussein and provide a good opportunity to get rid of Arafat,"
said the hawkish former prime minister.
-
- Nawfal fears "the Palestinians will once again pay
the price of the war in Iraq as was the case during the Gulf war."
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- Many commentators argue that the negative impact of Arafat's
public support for Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf war on international
opinion forced the Palestinians into making bigger concessions in the peace
process which started the same year in Madrid.
-
- Sakher Habash, a central committee member of Arafat's
ruling Fatah party, predicted that "no scenario should be ruled out
and that Sharon will do everything he can to fight the intifada."
-
- Following a spate of deadly Palestinian suicide bombings
in June, the Israeli army reoccupied most of the West Bank and both Sharon
and US President George W. Bush called for Arafat to be dumped.
-
- Both Israel and the United States also called for sweeping
Palestinian reforms and Washington has favoured an option which would sideline
the ageing Palestinian leader into an honorary position while transferring
power to a prime minister.
-
- Arafat has consistently ruled out the creation of such
a position but Palestinian sources told AFP recently that "he now
accepted discussion on it".
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- "Arafat is aware of the threats posed by a strike
against Iraq and the measures Sharon could take," a Palestinian official
said on condition of anonymity.
-
- The Palestinian sources stressed that Arafat had been
taking steps towards complying with US and Israeli demands, by engaging
contacts with the hardline Hamas group on an end to anti-Israeli attacks
and by speeding up the reform of the Palestinian security services.
-
- Political analyst Hani al-Masri also forecast that Sharon
would take advantage of all eyes being focused on Iraq to press on with
his own "war on terror" by "imposing an Israeli solution
to the conflict".
-
- "This would include an internal population transfer,
the occupation of the Gaza Strip and Arafat's exile," he said.
-
- "Transfer" of Palestinians east of the Jordan
has been advocated by many far-right politicians in Israel who could enter
the next government if the dovish Amram Mitzna's Labour refuses to form
a coalition with Likud, which polls say will comfortably win the January
28 legislative elections.
-
- Israeli defence officials have predicted a US strike
on Iraq would take place as early as the first days of February.
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