Israel's vice premier said yesterday killing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was an option in its threat to "remove" him as an obstacle to peace.
"Killing [him] is definitely one of the options," Ehud Olmert, a mainstream member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet, told Israel Radio.
"We are trying to eliminate all the heads of terror, and Arafat is one of the heads of terror," Olmert said.
Palestinian chief peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said in response: "This is the thinking and action of the mafia -- not a government."
Israel's security Cabinet decided to "remove" Arafat after two suicide bombings killed 15 Israelis on Tuesday, the latest surge of violence in a three-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood. But it did not say when it would move against him.
The vague wording left room for several options, including exiling, isolating or killing Arafat -- a proposal which media reports said hardline Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz raised but Sharon shot down.
The Israeli threat sparked an international outcry, with Washington -- Israel's main ally -- joining in a chorus of calls not to expel Arafat, a veteran symbol of Palestinian aspirations for independence.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied on Saturday in support of Arafat, many vowing to sacrifice their lives at his battered headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Arafat, effectively confined to the "Muqata" compound for the past 21 months by Israeli army roadblocks and patrols in Ramallah, addressed them via cell phone hookup, proclaiming support for a "peace of the brave."
With US backing, Israel blames Arafat for fomenting militant violence -- a charge he denies -- and calls him an obstacle to peace.
Arafat said on Saturday he was still committed to a US-backed "road map" to Palestinian statehood by 2005, a plan that seems dead in the water following the recent bloodshed.
Israel's Maariv newspaper reported on Sunday that Avi Dichter, chief of the Shin Bet domestic security service, said in internal discussions it would be better to kill Arafat rather than expel him.
Dichter, the report said, believes Arafat's death would have a short-term effect, touching off protests in the Palestinian territories that would last only several weeks, whereas exile would return him to the world stage and win him sympathy.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS