Israel Blames Terror Wave on Arafat and Strikes Back

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared an unfettered war Monday on terrorism, which he blamed directly on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, as Israeli fighter jets and helicopters pounded targets in Palestinian cities and towns.

Amid a raging government debate over whether to oust Arafat from power and expel him from the region, Sharon’s Cabinet early today pronounced the Palestinian Authority a “terror-supporting entity,” setting the stage for further retaliation. Army troops and tanks thrust deep into several Palestinian cities overnight, advancing in the West Bank city of Ramallah to within half a mile of Arafat’s headquarters, where the Palestinian president was spending the night.

With the Middle East teetering on the brink of new disaster, Israel also launched strikes elsewhere in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Israeli gunships hit Arafat’s Gaza City headquarters and destroyed two of his personal helicopters and damaged a third. The Israelis called the aircraft symbols of his sovereignty and freedom.

Also in Gaza, Israeli bulldozers plowed the runways of the Palestinian international airport, which was opened three years ago amid great fanfare as the crown jewel of Palestinian aspirations for statehood. A senior Israeli official said the airport, though it had been out of operation since last year, was rendered unusable, “turning it into a flourishing greenhouse.”

The air raids and incursions were just the beginning of what Sharon promised will be a broad campaign of retaliation for a trio of suicide bombings and a shooting over the weekend that killed 26 people, all but one of them Israeli Jews, and wounded more than 200 others. But his goals go further than simple revenge and aim at forcing Arafat to crack down on militants. Palestinian officials said the new offensive was a declaration of war not on terrorism but on Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.

Sharon went on national television Monday evening to hold Arafat “directly responsible” for all attacks against Israel, calling them part of a concerted crusade to destroy the Jewish state.

He branded Arafat a terrorist and “the biggest obstacle to peace and stability in the Middle East” in the past, the present and most likely the future. And he indicated that he had received the blessing of President Bush to fight terror with all the means at Israel’s disposal.

“A war has been imposed upon us,” Sharon said in the televised address, “a war of terrorism, a war that has taken innocent victims every day, a systematic war.

“The aims of the terrorists and their helpers and those who allow them to work without hindrance are to drive us from here,” Sharon said, “to make us lose hope and lose our national vision to be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.”

Sharon chose language to echo Bush’s own vows to “chase” terrorists and “make them pay the price.”

Palestinian officials said Sharon’s comments were bellicose. Arafat called for an urgent meeting of the world’s largest Muslim body, the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Qatari news agency reported.

Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Cabinet member, called on Bush to intervene and “stop Sharon before it’s too late.”

“We are really going down the drain tonight,” Erekat added.

Nation on Alert for More Suicide Bombers

To be sure, the blood-soaked conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was entering uncharted waters. The weekend was the deadliest such period for Israelis in many years, and the nation remained on high alert for more Palestinian suicide bombers. Rarely has the mood here been more grim. About 1,000 people have been killed--three-quarters of them Palestinians--in the more than 14 months since peace talks collapsed and Palestinians launched an uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Today, Arafat is weak, Palestinians are impoverished, and Israelis are terrified. People on both sides have become radicalized as a cycle of death and revenge has accelerated.

Among Israelis, there is a growing clamor to topple Arafat. The Israeli Cabinet went into emergency session Monday night, following Sharon’s speech, to decide what actions to take. Several ministers said beforehand that they would advocate expelling Arafat, who returned to Gaza in 1994 after 27 years in exile.

“If we want to have peace and quiet, we must get Arafat out of here,” Finance Minister Silvan Shalom, a member of Sharon’s right-wing Likud Party, said on his way into the meeting. “I am proposing expelling Arafat, because if we don’t do it now, we will have to do it later.”

But the Cabinet is divided on this point, and ultimately Sharon’s need to keep his broad coalition government together probably will prevent such a drastic move. Most analysts see attempting to remove Arafat as impractical, if not impossible, and certainly counterproductive. Shimon Peres, Israel’s dovish foreign minister, is among those who warn that the radical Islamic movement Hamas might be the force to rise to replace Arafat, sweeping away any chance for dialogue. And Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer insisted that the elimination of Arafat is not Israel’s goal.

Aim Is to Hit Symbols of Arafat’s Leadership

Instead, the Israeli government’s strategy is to repeatedly attack the symbols of Arafat’s leadership to further weaken him and create the conditions in which he could lose power, analysts said.

“It is not in our interests to do it [remove Arafat] ourselves,” said Eran Lehrman, a recently retired military intelligence officer. “Our interest is to bring more Palestinians to the conclusion that Arafat has betrayed their needs and wishes. So that they make him irrelevant.”

The Cabinet meeting ended early today in disarray. Ministers from Peres’ Labor Party walked out rather than vote on the resolution that declared the Palestinian Authority a terror-supporting entity. Sharon’s spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said the resolution in effect prohibits any negotiations with the Palestinians, including recently restarted security-cooperation talks. He also said the characterization could be reversed if Arafat’s government reins in terrorist activity.

The six-point statement also listed the Tanzim militia of Arafat’s Fatah political movement and his Force 17 elite guard as terrorist organizations.

Gissin said the Cabinet’s decision will expand the scope and frequency of attacks on Palestinian targets, allowing more military incursions into Palestinian territory, hits on strategic and symbolic facilities and ever-tighter blockades on cities and towns.

Already by Monday, Israeli forces had sealed the remaining entrances to numerous towns and imposed severe restrictions on most Palestinian travel.

Helicopters Attack President’s Compound

In Gaza, Israeli Apache helicopters fired a barrage of missiles into Arafat’s seaside compound late Monday afternoon, hitting a fuel depot and sending flames and smoke into the sky. Two of Arafat’s Russian-made, Egyptian-supplied helicopters and a helipad were destroyed.

Palestinians fired automatic weapons toward the hovering copters. At least 17 Palestinians were wounded in the missile fire, Palestinians reported from Gaza.

Arafat was in Ramallah at the time of the attack, which occurred at sundown, at the hour of a meal that breaks each day’s fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Palestinian leader has used the helicopters to travel between the West Bank and Gaza, and their destruction will greatly restrict his movement, which army officials said was the goal.

“This is an insult for the Palestinians when the home of their rais [president], his helicopters and his security system are being attacked,” Arafat said.

A short time later, Israeli F-16 warplanes struck the West Bank city of Jenin, hitting a police station and the offices of the governor, the senior representative of the Palestinian Authority. During a recent incursion, Israeli forces already had blown up most of the city’s security facilities, including the jail.

“The radicals and the Israelis play into each other’s hands,” said Gov. Zuhair Manasreh, whose office was in flames Monday night. “Radical Palestinians give Israelis justification to do this, Israel punishes us all, then more Palestinians demand revenge. Thousands are punished for the actions of a few radicals. This devil’s circle will never end.”

Jenin has produced many suicide bombers. But it is also a place where a top Islamic militant suspected in numerous bombings recently was arrested by Palestinian authorities--an act that triggered three days of riots.

In the West Bank city of Bethlehem, a member of Islamic Jihad was killed in an explosion that Israel denied any connection with. Incursions also were reported in the West Bank city of Nablus, where one Palestinian was reportedly shot dead.

The Middle East conflict is clearly reaching a turning point. Arafat is being warned by Israeli officials that he has one last chance to rein in militants. He declared a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza on Sunday, and overnight arrested more than 100 members of Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the weekend’s terrorist attacks, and of Islamic Jihad.

Israel dismissed the arrests as insignificant. A senior security official said most of those detained were low-ranking members and not among the key operatives Israel seeks. But Palestinian officials said the new Israeli offensive will make it very difficult for Arafat to continue making arrests.

“This is the beginning of the campaign to destroy the Palestinian Authority, because the Israeli government has no political peace plan to offer,” Palestinian Justice Minister Freih abu Medeen said.