Assault on Arafat’s Complex Halted, but Stalemate Persists

Inside the battered offices of Yasser Arafat, a deafening roar shook the nerves and kept people awake. Outside, a brigade of armored bulldozers, towering backhoes and giant jackhammers shoved debris and reduced buildings to dust and rubble.

With the Israeli siege of the Palestinian Authority president and his headquarters in its third day Sunday, electricity, water and phone lines to the building were cut, then partially restored. The Israeli government and Arafat were locked in a stalemate: Israel continued to demand the extradition of as many as 50 alleged Palestinian “terrorists,” while Arafat continued to refuse to consider any such surrender.

After dark Sunday, the army said it had ended its demolition of Arafat’s once-sprawling official compound, “for now.” Every building had been flattened, damaged or occupied, including the three-story structure where Arafat sleeps and works. He and at least 200 aides, bodyguards and others were there, all corralled into a few rooms, according to the Israeli military commander in charge of the operation.

As Israelis debated the wisdom of the siege, and Palestinians rallied to Arafat’s defense, the Bush administration issued a rare criticism of Israel.

“Israeli actions in and around the Muqata [Arafat’s compound] are not helpful in reducing terrorist violence or promoting Palestinian reforms,” White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said in Washington.

“We urge Israel to continue considering the consequences of its actions,” Mamo said, adding that “high-level” contacts between the White House and Israel had taken place in the days since a Palestinian suicide bombing killed seven people in Tel Aviv and gave way to the assault on Arafat’s headquarters.

Other sources said Washington had succeeded in restraining Israel from sending forces into Arafat’s office; on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But Israeli officials insisted that U.S. reaction had been mild.

At the compound Sunday afternoon, army officers said they would keep up the pressure on Arafat and his associates until they handed over the men wanted by Israel, including the head of Palestinian intelligence for the West Bank.

Arafat would be hard pressed to comply. Turning over any Palestinian fighter would be regarded as treachery by rank-and-file Palestinians.

For the 200 or so people inside the compound, life became still more difficult Sunday when the phone lines and air conditioning were cut. Running water, which was turned off Saturday, was restored briefly in the morning, then turned off again. On Sunday afternoon, two huge Caterpillar tractors with attached cranes lurched toward a relatively unscathed section of building that adjoined Arafat’s offices. While one jackhammered holes in the walls, the other used a giant claw as a battering ram, knocking away large chunks of wall and then scooping up the debris. Within a couple of hours, only skeletal remains were still standing.

Later Sunday, a senior military officer briefing journalists inside the compound, about 150 yards from where Arafat was trapped, said the cutting of water, electricity and telephone lines was an accident. He said that water and electricity would be restored and that food packages of pita, yogurt and hummus were to be delivered overnight.

At least during the journalists’ visit, the army had taken down an Israeli flag that soldiers the day before dramatically hoisted over the Palestinian Authority headquarters. The officer said that move had been a “mistake” by an overly excited soldier.

Arafat spent the day, as usual, on the telephone, consulting with other leaders, mostly from the Arab world. Other Palestinian officials joined in the diplomatic effort.

“This is a very, very dangerous situation,” Salam Fayyad, the new Palestinian finance minister, said by telephone from within the compound.

“Nothing is going to be achieved by it ... ,” he went on. “I just don’t see how acting in this fashion will bring us any closer to the end we would all like to see. This is just not going to yield anything other than misery--and I mean misery for all.”

Fayyad spent hours on his mobile phone talking to officials from the United States and elsewhere.

He was not alone in suggesting the futility of the siege. Israelis too were wondering if this would be the final blow to end Arafat’s reign and Palestinian violence or if it would only fan the flames.

Banner headlines in Israeli newspapers Sunday trumpeted a purported statement by Sharon: “Arafat is finished.”

“We won’t harm him, but he won’t run the show,” Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit, from Sharon’s Likud Party, said.

Although there is no love lost for Arafat among ordinary Israelis, support was not unanimously behind the military operation in Ramallah.

Some commentators said it was aimed at appeasing the hawkish right, while others said that going after Arafat and not the top leaders of radical Islamic groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad didn’t make sense.

“How can we explain this bizarre fetish in which Arafat and the Palestinian Authority serve as a sort of voodoo doll for Islamic Jihad, Hamas and [the latter’s spiritual founder] Sheik Yassin?” asked satirist Doron Rosenblum in his regular column in the newspaper Haaretz.

“The latter take explicit responsibility for the attacks yet we lash out again and again at the Muqata and at the figure we have already metamorphosed into a scarecrow, because they are there, because they’re accessible and because we’re used to doing so. What will we do when we no longer have Arafat to boot around? Will we send bulldozers to turn him over in his grave after every attack?”

The Israeli siege has had the presumably unintended consequence of rallying support for Arafat, even as it aimed to isolate him and, ultimately, end his career.

Arafat’s popularity had been ebbing among Palestinians, who saw him as a largely ineffective figurehead presiding over a corrupt administration. Less than two weeks ago, his Cabinet was forced to resign to avoid a no-confidence vote in the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Palestinians now see him once again hoisted onto the world stage, once again playing the role of embattled freedom fighter refusing to give in to overwhelming force. Large crowds took to the streets of both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip late Saturday and again Sunday, violating Israeli-imposed curfews, to rally in support of Arafat. Israeli forces shot dead six people, the Palestinians said.

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Times staff writer Faye Fiore in Washington contributed to this report.