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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (12862)	12/5/2001 6:39:56 PM
From: sim chambers	Respond to of 281500

hawkmoon, i wrote it

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (12862)	12/5/2001 7:24:47 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Arafat Appeals to Bush: 'Give Me a Chance' By Randall Mikkelsen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat appealed to President Bush to ``give me a chance,'' in a letter Norway's prime minister said he delivered to the U.S. president on Wednesday. ``I had a message from Chairman Arafat and the main message was, 'give me a chance,''' Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik told reporters after meeting Bush in the Oval Office. He said the message was contained in a letter he delivered to Bush. Arafat also called for international pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel to end the attacks against Palestinian targets, which were launched in retaliation for suicide bombings in Israel which killed 25 last weekend, Bondevik said. But Bush gave no sign of issuing a call for Israeli restraint -- which has been absent from U.S. comment since the retaliation began. The Norwegian leader said he and Bush agreed that Arafat's efforts to crack down on the leadership of Palestinian militant groups had so far been insufficient. ``We also agreed that Arafat so far has not done enough in order to arrest terrorists and the leadership of the terrorist organizations, the extreme organizations on the Palestinian side,'' Bondevik said. However, he said, ``We want both to give him a chance to show this.'' Bush insisted at the meeting that Arafat do everything in his power to prevent further ``terrorist attacks'' in Israel. ``The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) needs to stand up and rout out those killers, those murderers who are preventing us from getting the peace process in place,'' Bush told reporters at the start of the meeting. Suicide bombings killed 25 people and wounded 200 in Haifa and Jerusalem over the weekend. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Jerusalem hotel, injuring three people. ``Mr. Arafat must show leadership and bring those to justice who would use murder as a weapon to derail peace and destroy innocent life,'' Bush said. ``Now is his time, and other nations of the world that are interested in peace must encourage Mr. Arafat, must insist that Mr. Arafat do everything in his power to prevent further terrorist attacks in Israel.'' Israel has retaliated for the suicide bombings with its fiercest attacks since a 14-month conflict with the Palestinians began. Planes and helicopters attacked security targets across the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday, firing one missile just yards from Arafat's West Bank office when he was there. Arafat was not hurt. Bondevik said he spoke to Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday. He urged Sharon to avoid a further escalation of the violence ``because I'm afraid that this will bring us into a perilous situation and end up being a war,'' he said. Sharon replied ``that he had no intention of attacking Palestinian targets more, and for the last 26 hours there has been no attack,'' Bondevik told reporters. Israeli officials have given no confirmation they were ending the retaliatory attacks, although Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has said he expects a 12-hour period of quiet in which Arafat would be watched to see whether he rounded up militants. Bondevik told reporters he urged Arafat to ``show leadership, to arrest terrorists.'' Arafat replied that he had arrested leaders of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- steps Israel has called a sham -- but added that ``he was in a difficult situation,'' Bondevik said. The Norwegian told reporters he would work to further contact between the Israelis and Palestinians. Norway hosted talks that led to the 1993 Oslo accords, which launched a Middle East peace process now in tatters. dailynews.yahoo.com ******************************************* What's truly interesting about this situation with Arafat is that if he is successful in rounding up extremist leadership, his bargaining position with Israel will be drastically weakened, both from the prospect of losing the ability to coerce Israel through these "proxies", but also because it will be an obvious sign that he had the ability to contain these groups much earlier, when they were not so powerful, but did nothing.** And he'll have no more excuses for not clamping down in the future against any other groups that poke their heads up. Damned if does, and damned if he doesn't. Hawk