Israel Confirms Liquidation
Policy - Arafat Not Ruled Out
Ha'aretz Service
1-3-01
territories, Israel confirmed Wednesday that its policy of liquidating
Palestinians who are behind attacks on Israelis could also target senior
officials of the Palestinian Authority. "Those who are behind, have already
carried out, or planned to carry out terror attacks - this is not a new
policy for us - must be hit," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Army
Radio. "This is the most efficient, precise, and just way." Israel has
refrained from attacking PA officials in the past, sending squads of "special
units" to kill officials and activists of the Fatah movement, which has
spearheaded the intifada, or uprising, and whose armed militiamen have been
central in gun battles with IDF soldiers. Though Fatah is nominally under
the aegis of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, the extent to which Arafat can
control the movement's activities remains unclear. Asked if Yasser Arafat
might also be a candidate for liquidation, Sneh declined to answer directly.
"In the end, any decision will be judged on the basis of its bottom line -
will it ultimately cause more damage or more benefit." In remarks broadcast
by the radio Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Barak said "We intend to act in
the coming weeks with all our might to lower the violence, and to harm
whomever harms us ... We are acting, have acted and will act with increasing
efficiency in these spheres." The radio said that despite a lack of concrete
evidence, Israeli security authorities believed that several recent attacks
including the Monday bombing in Netanya "bore the fingerprints of elements of
the Palestinian Authority" or Fatah activists. But Sneh said it was more
likely that either the militant Muslim Hamas or the Islamic Jihad
organizations were behind the Netanya bombing, rather than Fatah.
