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Arafat Threatened with Invasion, Exile, and Death ***************************************************************
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"WAR TO THE FINISH"

[MER - It was inevitable that the Israelis would pursue their 'autonomy' approach -- after all that's what the "Oslo Peace Process" is all about for them. And it was inevitable that the Arafat "authority" would have to at least try to give the public impression of pursuing Palestinian independence, however illusory.
     The realities are that the actual agreements signed by Arafat comprised, in effect, surrender terms -- as many Palestinians have themselves concluded. And the realities on the ground in the occupied territories (with or without Har Homa) make any kind of true independence increasingly unlikely.
     Add to this the full weight of the USA on Israel's side (no matter what the occasional rhetoric), plus the weakness and corruption of all the Arab "client-regimes" in the area, coupled with the total imbalance of arms -- Israel is not only the only nuclear power in the region but is said to be at least seven times more powerful than all of the Arab armies combined -- and the so-called "peace process" becomes exposed as the "domination process" it was always designed to be.
     Arafat has been threatened many times by the Israelis and the Americans in the post-Gulf War world. He has been given documents he "must" sign, told things he "must" do, and repeatedly "informed" that if he didn't do as instructed there were dire consequences to be faced.
     But rarely have these threats been made so clearly and in public as has just been the case from Israeli Justice Minister Tsachi Hanegbi, one of Benjamin Netanyahu's oldest and closest lieutenants and confidants. Hanegbi has not only threatened to send Arafat and his flock back into exile, he has as well threatened to re-invade the "autonomous" areas and even to have Arafat killed!
     And if this is what they say in public, imagine what they must say in private!

THREATS  OF  ISRAELI  JUSTICE  MINISTER  HANEGBI

"If we have to fight again for our lives, Arafat will no longer be able to sit in his beachfront villa with Suha [his wife] and give orders to shoot. No one who comes to hurt us is immune, not the Engineer [Yehya Ayyash who was assassinated by Israeli in Gaza late in 1995], nor anyone in any fancy house. Whoever opens his suitcase of ammunition can find himself packing his other suitcases and returning to wandering the Tunis-Baghdad route like he used to."

[If there is violence against Israel, there will be] "no more Areas A, B, or C. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will operate throughout the entire territory in order to prevent any threat to the lives of Jews."

"...it could be that this peace process is doomed to failure, and in the next ten days we will know the truth. If violence is used against us, the entire process will explode. If Arafat gives a green light, directly or indirectly, to blood and to killing, this will be the end of our attempt at dialogue between us."

"If there is war, then it will be war to the finish...autonomy would be eliminated...it will all be under Israeli sovereignty."

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