“I’m not responsible anymore for the safety of Chairman Arafat,” Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on April 23. In so doing he further stirred things up in the already volatile region of the Middle East.
It is a known ‘fact’ in Israeli and American security organizations, that Yassir Arafat is involved in terror attacks, but the ‘smoking gun’ has not yet been found. Nevertheless, the military wing of Arafat’s own Fatah party is constantly claiming responsibility for deadly attacks against Israelis. Still, Arafat is the leader most identified with the Palestinian struggle, and his name can be found at the top of the popular-leaders list, one Palestinian poll after another.
So why threaten to kill him, or more to the point – why now?
People close to Sharon are denying the claims that Sharon is upping the Arafat ante in order to gain more votes in the May 2 referendum on his Gaza-withdrawal plan. Notwithstanding the denials, it seems the timing Sharon chose to release his statement has a lot to do with the upcoming vote. Although the American administration has already denounced his statement, Sharon knows that if his disengagement plan does not pass, President George W. Bush’s prestige will be seriously damaged. After all, it was Bush who approved Sharon’s plan, and it is Bush who needs a political success in the Middle East as U.S. presidential elections come closer.
Will Sharon execute his threat?
The Palestinians are taking this threat seriously. “It is known Israeli PM Ariel Sharon does not tend to say things he does not mean, and he is not making threats unless significant measures have already been made to implement them,” wrote the Palestinian daily Al-Quds in its editorial on April 25. The editorial went on to remind the readers that Sharon threatened to assassinate Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders and indeed implemented his threats.
Israelis are less forthright. “If nothing surprising, over-dramatic or painful occurs, Israel does not intend killing Arafat in the near future…Sharon could just have stated he intends to marry Victoria Beckham,” wrote Israeli daily Ma’ariv analyst Ben Kaspit. Nevertheless, added Kaspit, “if a traumatic attack like the one in the Park Hotel [where 30 Israelis were killed during Passover holiday celebrations in 2002] occurs around sensitive dates such as independence or memorial day [April 26-27]…the cards might be reshuffled.”
And who is to blame?
America of course. “The murderer [Sharon] has his back covered by the U.S., and he is thus laying the grounds for an eternal hostility in the Arab and Muslim world towards America,” writes ‘Adli ‘Sadiq, a columnist in the Palestinian daily Al-Hayyat Al-Jadida and deputy Palestinian foreign minister.
“The U.S., which fails to put a wrench in the works of [Sharon’s] plan – bears the major responsibility for Sharon’s undertakings from hell,” wrote Al-Quds in its editorial.