Yassin killing stirs Palestinian fears that Arafat is next
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RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - The assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has reawakened fears among Palestinians that veteran leader Yasser Arafat could be next on the Israeli military's hit list.
Despite denials by Israeli officials that there are plans to go after Arafat, a poll published by the Maariv daily Tuesday showed that a majority of Israelis would like to see their government dish out the same treatment to the Palestinian leader as accorded Yassin.
"We all feel that he is being targeted. He feels that too," a Palestinian cabinet minister, who is close to Arafat, said on condition of anonymity.
The Palestinian analyst Hani Al-Masri said there were fears that Yassin's killing could serve as a trial run for a similar operation against Arafat.
"I am afraid that the assassination of Yassin is an experiment for the assassination of Arafat or expelling him or getting rid of him somehow," said Masri.
"Unless serious political action is taken (by the international community) in view of this assassination then Israel will continue moving towards Arafat."
Deputy defence minister Zeev Boim told Israeli radio after the Yassin strike that the government had no plans to kill Arafat, satified that his containment in his West Bank headquarters was serving its purpose.
Arafat has been kept under effective house arrest in his offices here, known as the Muqataa, for more than two years.
But Palestinians were also alarmed by comments from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's political security advisor, Amos Gilaad, who said after Yassin's death that Arafat was "the most dangerous and destructive man that the Middle East has ever seen ... (who) aspires to the total destruction of Israel."
Sharon himself said while justifiyng Yassin's killing that "destruction of the state of Isael" was his guiding ideology.
Hafaz al-Barghuti, editor of the semi-official Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper, said that Yassin's killing was intended as a warning to Arafat.
"The assassination of Yassin was a clear message to Arafat that if he does not concede then the alternative is to deport him or assassinate him," he told AFP.
"They have been practising a political assassination against him and, as long as he does not bend to their will, then it's very possible that they might take physical action."
Sakher Habash, a veteran cadre in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and member of the central committee of Arafat's Fatah movement, was also convinced that Sharon wanted to finally see the back of his old enemy but would feel constrained by the prospect of inflaming international opinion.
"If it is up to Sharon, then at some point he might he take such action against Arafat but he knows that it is not an easy decision that he can take," he said.
Sharon's security cabinet agreed in principle last September to "remove" Arafat from his West Bank headquarters with deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert later saying that assassination was one option.
But the premier later insisted that there were "no plans" to kill Arafat, with his allies in the United States strongly warning against such a move.
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