Is it new policy or politics? Israel moves to expel Arafat

[Darranar]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (JTA) — Israel’s decision to expel Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat intensifies the diplomatic war between Israel and the Palestinian leader.

The question is whether the decision to expel Arafat in principle will translate into a new policy to forcibly change the Palestinian leadership.

For the time being, Israel’s government has reserved the right to remove Arafat from power “in a manner, and at a time, of its choosing.” Israel knows that it if it did expel the Palestinian leader, it almost certainly would be without U.S. approval.

“We’re in a situation in which we know that such approval, were we even to ask for it, would be impossible to get,” Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Israel Army Radio.

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13192&intcategoryid=1

US Voices Opposition to Expulsion of Arafat

The United States is making clear its opposition to the expulsion of Yasser Arafat from Palestinian territory, as decided on in principle by Israel's security cabinet. U.S. officials say Mr. Arafat might be more disruptive to Middle East peace effort than he is now, if we went into exile.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=D3696115-6514-4375-9A9FD74371FF63A3

[Wetzelbill]

1. This is bad

when they say expel they mean "kill." It is new in the sense they might be dumb enough to finally do it, but politics for these extremists have always been along those lines. Killing Arafat will virtually guarantee that peace attempts will be crushed for another generation or two, in that he'll become a martyr. Arafat was veritably placed on the back burner until Ariel Sharon made the guy a hero again because of his preventive strike policy on Hamas militants. Until then, Palestinians were sick of Arafat, yet Sharon sought to give him a comeback. Now he'll make him a martyr. These guys on both sides of the conflict are all so blinded by ideology they never learn.

[Darranar]

2. Agreed...

this is bad news indeed.

And if you're interested, here's another thread on the topic here.

[Violet_Crumble]

3. There's some wiggle-room in the US opposition...

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher responded to the decision by saying, “We think it would not be helpful to expel him because it would just give him another stage to play on.”

They seem to be saying that they don't approve of expelling him, but killing him would solve the problems they see with exiling him, so my question would be what their stance is on killing him. Regardless of any opposition the US voices, it's what they do and not what they say that matters in the long run. The US has a solid history of voicing opposition to things, but when those things end up happening anyway, the US goes into various degrees of backflipping, sometimes reacting diplomatically in a way that doesn't merely tag them as a toothless tiger, but sometimes actively giving support to the group or state they voiced opposition to in the first place....

Violet...

[tinnypriv]

4. You got it

Expel = kill.

Unless US intelligence is asleep at the wheel, they've gotta know this.

[StandWatie]

5. I don't think so this time

I heard the term "crossing a red line" that's some very, very, strong diplomatic language and when the US uses it against a small country the usual consequense is military.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. What do you think the US would do if that line was crossed?

What will they do if Arafat is expelled/killed? Issue a strong condemnation? Ouch, that'll hurt - not....One thing that is clear is that given the previous US track record, there will be no military intervention unless US national interests are under threat. There isn't any oil or a threat to US security in Israel/Palestine, so I can't really see any US national interests there....

Violet...

[StandWatie]

7. these are interesting times

I think US reaction could be severe, we don't get enough back out of Israel to justify how much this relationship is costing us anymore.

[Resistance]

8. let's see

Israel got away with the intentional attack on the USS Liberty - which resulted in the deaths of 34 American servicemen; and also murdered an American peace activist, Rachel Corrie earlier this year. With that in mind, I don't think any "red-line" exists for Israel to even worry about crossing.

[Darranar]

9. You well know...

my opinions on both of those issues, and I haven't changed them.

However, I do agree with your general sentiment; Israel has gotten away with a lot of things that it shouldn't have gotten away with.