Sharon: Expelling Arafat not 'good for Israel'

[bemildred]

Heh. Cognitive whiplash anyone?

Edit: Nice sensitive picture of Jabba there too.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a
leading newspaper that expelling
Palestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat "would not be good
for Israel" although he still
considers Arafat to be an
impediment to peace.

"The likelihood of expelling
without harming him is low," Sharon
told the Jerusalem Post. "The opinion
of our intelligence services is that
expelling him would not be a good
idea."

Sharon added that Israel's position
not to expel Arafat is not new. "Our
calculations for years have been that
expelling him would not be good for
Israel."

Reacting to the interview, chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat
told CNN: "The threat on Arafat
remains."

CNN

[notadmblnd]

1. Of course it would not be good for Isreal...

Who would they balme all the "terrorist" attack on if Arafat wah expelled? How would Isreal justify their in-human actions against the Palastinians if the terror attacks ceased?

[Saudade]

2. Sharon

Everything Sharon does and says is determined by PR value -- in Israel and in the US. Almost everything Sharon says is dishonest and calculated.

I am wondering what gain he hopes to garner from this, because it does not express his true view, obviously.

[bigendian]

3. The logic of this.

Arafat is a coward who want's more than anything to hold onto power.
His desires and ego make him easily manipulated.

Same for Bush. OBL is playing him like a fiddle.

[tinnypriv]

4. This is consistent

"Our calculations for years have been that expelling him would not be good for Israel. Also, the likelihood of expelling him without harming him is low, not only because of his security guards but because he would be surrounded by a human chain of Israelis. The opinion of our intelligence services is that expelling him would not be a good idea"

The opinion of the Shabak head (Avi Dichter) is that it is "better to liquidate Arafat, rather than expel him". So Sharon isn't actually lying, merely being disingenueous.

Also, the Israeli cabinet decision was to "remove" Arafat, not "expel" him.

Sharon is not ruling out "removing", i.e. killing Arafat, merely saying that putting him outside the territories would not be a "good idea".

Hence, his position hasn't changed and is consistent with Avi Dichter's.

[bluesoul]

5. Removing Arafat

"Removing" him would be even worse, and all the consequences of such actions would be lying on Sharon. Any peace agreement would then be probably impossible for a considerable time. Maybe that would be the very idea of the removal. After all Sharon has done everything to kill the peace process. We can only speculate what would happen in the Arab world and those still friendly to US regimes...