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Israel and U.S. "Agree to Disagree" on Expelling Arafat

(Newsweek) Israel's Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom believes there is no chance to have peace while Arafat is still in power. No moderate leadership can emerge while he's still here. He also noted that some 10% of the Palestinian budget is going to the expenses of Arafat's bureau - $100 million. "We know what hudna [ceasefire] means. We saw that they took advantage of this period to dig more tunnels, to smuggle more weapons, to train their activists, to extend the range of their missiles....The Roadmap says clearly and sharply that they must dismantle the infrastructure of terrorist organizations," he said. "I think the fence is the only way to keep the peace process alive, for two reasons. It will minimize the possibility for terrorists to carry out attacks, and it will allow us to hand out more work permits. The Palestinian Authority is against the fence because they will lose the main weapon they had against us. They have always arrived at every negotiation with an imaginary gun on the table, saying if they don't get what they want they'll resort to using it."
2003-09-24 00:00:00
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