United in bitterness, divided over strategy

Ever since the Intifada erupted in September 2000, there have been two main schools of thought in Israel over the personality and policy of Yasser Arafat. One is that he is an unreconstructed "revolutionary" or "terrorist" with an innate need to achieve Palestinian independence through arms struggle and the "demographic" destruction of Israel through the demand of the right of return for five million Palestinian refugees.

The other is that he remains a potential partner but only after he is "pressured" into accepting what Israel is prepared to grant him: in the case of Israel prime minister Ariel Sharon, a Palestinian "estate" over 50% of the West Bank and 60% of Gaza. These views are official and popular. "Arafat is a terrorist," says Avi Suliemani, an Israeli from Sederot a town that borders a live frontline with Gaza. "He's not fighting to drive the settlers out of Gaza. He's fighting to drive Jews out of Sederot, Lod, Haifa and Jaffa."

Another dominant Israeli opinion is that Arafat has so far relinquished leadership to the Palestinian militias that he can no longer control them. "Arafat can do nothing with Hamas and the other terrorist groups, so what point is there in talking to him?" says Maxim Elkries, manager of the Park Hotel restaurant wrecked by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Netanya on Wednesday.

Similar views can be heard in the Israeli government. In the cabinet discussions that led to yesterday's army assault on Ra mallah, some ministers argued that Arafat should be rendered dead or exiled. Others maintained he was still capable of being squeezed into submission.

Mr Sharon's verdict could easily mean both: "Arafat, who established a coalition of terror against Israel, is an enemy and at this stage will be isolated."

But what does isolation mean? Writing in yesterday's Yediot Aharonot newspaper, military correspondent Alex Fishman said Israel's military offensive was aimed at holding Arafat in a vice-like grip to enable the army to go house-to-house and clean up the "Palestinian terrorist infrastructure" once and for all. Similar operations would be waged in the other Palestinian authority areas.

But the political aim remains pressure: "The confrontation" was intended to escalate to "such a level of harshness that the PA will have no choice but to reach an agreement at the negotiating table," wrote Mr Fishman.

Labour party parliamentarian Haim Ramon says this may or may not be Mr Sharon's strategy. He is certain it will not work: "Sharon wants Arafat to disappear and for a moderate Palestinian leadership to replace him. He will then negotiate and try to convince it to accept a stay in 50% of the West Bank. It's an illusion. It will never happen.

"What is happening is what we see now: the de facto destruction of what is left of the Palestinian Authority and Israel's full or almost full re-occupation of the West Bank and Gaza".

Should Sharon find himself toppled as Israeli leader, Mr Arafat is unlikely to find the Israeli government's approach towards him softening. Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Israeli prime minister, who is well placed to regain power should the present coalition fall, said yesterday he would expel Yasser Arafat from the West Bank and Gaza and topple the Palestinian Authority.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Netanyahu pulled no punches, saying the only way to bring peace to the region was to get rid of Mr Arafat's "deadly, destructive and dark dictatorship.

"With a regime such as Arafat's that daily inculcates through the the media the message of the destruction of Israel in Arabic to the Palestinian population, that launches and sponsors unbelievably savage terrorist attacks, with such a regime there is no possibility of co-existence or peace," he said. "And therefore I would make sure that Arafat is expelled. I would not isolate him I would expel him and bring down his regime enabling other Palestinians to come to the fore who are willing to recognise there existence and make peace with Israel."

Mr Netanyahu, who was ousted from power three years ago, said Mr Arafat was responsible for organising nearly all the suicide bombings. "Ninety per cent of these outrages are carried out by forces directly responsible to Arafat and only 10% are carried out by Islamic groups that are affiliated to him but not under his direct control."

Mr Netanyahu compared the military action being taken by Israel against the Palestinian Authority with the war against terror.

"You first remove the regime and then have a mopping up of the remaining terrorist organisations. You then have a new regime, as in Afghanistan, and whatever it does, it does not do worse and obviously would be more moderate. I think this is what we need here."