Israeli Officials Soften Sharon Threat

Top Israeli officials on Sunday played down Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s latest threat against Yasser Arafat, saying Israel has no immediate plans to harm or evict the Palestinian leader.

“I don’t see the possibility that Arafat will be expelled or assassinated tomorrow morning,” Cabinet Minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio.

He added, though, that Sharon’s comments should be considered a warning against attacks by Palestinian militants. Israeli officials hold Arafat responsible for bombings and other strikes against Israelis.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sharon’s comments had thrown Arafat into “a state of panic.” That, he said, was good for Israel.

The ministers’ remarks followed a flurry of international criticism generated by Sharon’s comments on Israeli television Friday that he no longer felt bound by a 3-year-old commitment to President Bush to not harm Arafat, who is confined to a compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Sharon informed Bush of his change of heart during a visit to Washington two weeks ago.

After Sharon’s televised comments, U.S. officials reiterated that they opposed any attempt to harm Arafat.

Sharon has made previous threats against the Palestinian Authority president, who was said to be concerned for his safety after Israel assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin last month and killed his successor, Abdulaziz Rantisi, on April 17. Sharon warned this month that Arafat was not immune.

Many analysts read Sharon’s new threat as an effort to appeal to right-wing members of his own Likud Party, which is weighing his proposal for a unilateral evacuation of all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four others in the northern West Bank. Likud will hold an internal vote on the pullout plan next Sunday, and settlement activists are waging an energetic campaign to defeat it.

Opponents consider evacuating territory without gaining concessions from the Palestinians as a victory for terrorism. Palestinian militants say an Israeli pullout would vindicate their armed resistance.

On Sunday, Palestinian missiles struck a Gaza Strip settlement, injuring two Israelis and damaging two homes.

Sharon’s tough posture toward Arafat would help show that Israel is not being chased out of the Gaza Strip, analysts said, but there was skepticism that he would act in the absence of a significant new attack against Israel.

“Sharon could have announced that he intends to marry Victoria Beckham,” quipped one writer in the Maariv newspaper, referring to the former Spice Girl and wife of soccer star David Beckham. “He’s available and willing. Is she? Not yet.”

Arafat dismissed the threat, and several thousand Palestinians showed up at his compound to show support. Hundreds staged a rally Sunday in the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian legislator Kadoura Fares said there would be more pro-Arafat demonstrations in coming days. He said Arafat would only be removed as leader through Palestinian elections.

Meanwhile, Sharon’s hopes for selling his withdrawal proposal to the roughly 200,000 members of Likud ran into complications when three government ministers from the party who had endorsed the idea said they wouldn’t campaign to get it passed.

Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Education Minister Limor Livnat told Sharon their statements of support were as far as they would go to achieve the party’s approval, according to Israeli news reports.

The endorsements last week were seen as a crucial shot in the arm for Sharon, who was all but assured of a Cabinet majority.

After the Likud vote, the proposal is to go before the Cabinet and the Knesset, or parliament. Sharon earlier said he would abide by the results of the referendum, but last week suggested that he’d seek government approval even if the proposal were defeated in the party vote.

The pullout is leading in recent opinion polls among Likud members, but with less than 50% support. Sharon hoped to get ministers to mobilize party members to vote yes.

Amid the political maneuvering, Israel remained in a state of heightened alert as it headed into a weeklong period of holidays and special events, including the May 2 vote. The somber Memorial Day holiday began Sunday night. That commemoration is followed by Independence Day on Tuesday and a European-league basketball championship starting Thursday in Tel Aviv.

Hamas and other groups threatened retaliation after the assassinations of Yassin and Rantisi, but there has been none so far.

Israeli military officials said Sunday that authorities had foiled 55 plots to carry out attacks against Israelis since Jan. 1.

On Sunday night, an Israeli border-police officer was killed and two others were wounded during a shooting attack on their vehicle near the West Bank city of Hebron. Soldiers were hunting for the gunmen.

In other developments, Israeli police said they had arrested three men suspected in several attacks, including last month’s fatal shooting of George Khoury, an Israeli Arab who is the son of a prominent Jerusalem lawyer. Khoury, a university student, was slain while jogging when his attackers apparently mistook him for a Jew, police said.