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Peres Says Israel is not "After" Arafat
WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel does not want the downfall of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said in a speech late Saturday, news agencies reported.
"We don't want him to fall. This is not our purpose," said Peres in an address before the American Jewish Congress, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"We don't have any intention to destroy their autonomy," he added. "We prefer to see life in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip flowing easily."
But the Israeli foreign minister said his country wanted the Palestinian president to establish firm control over arms and the use of arms in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
"Arafat wants to belong to the club that fights terrorism," said Peres. "This is a membership you cannot win by words. You can't belong to a non-smoking club with a big cigar in your mouth."
Meanwhile, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was condemned Monday the Palestinian Authority's (PA), who made a decision to outlaw PFLP's armed wing, after claimed responsibility for the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister last week.
The PA also has arrested dozens of PFLP members allegedly connected to the killing, which constituted the first time an Israeli official has been targeted.
"The Abu Ali Mustafa martyr brigades are fighting to put an end to [Israeli] occupation and are legitimately defending the Palestinian people against intensified Zionist terrorism," PFLP spokesman, Maher Taher, told AFP in Damascus.
"The right to resistance and self-defense is recognized by the United Nations," said Taher, a member of the radical leftist movement's political bureau.
"The Palestinian people reject [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon's logic whereby Palestinian officials are assassinated," he said.
Israel has assassinated roughly 70 Palestinian political leaders and officials since the current Intifada, or uprising, against illegal Israeli occupation began 13 months ago - in an assassination policy condemned by the international community, including the U.S. - Israel's staunchest ally.
The PFLP is one of the components of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Mustafa's assassination was the first time that Israel's policy of assassination had been aimed at a high-level Palestinian political leader.
On Sunday night, the Palestinian High Council on National Security declared as "outlaw, any group which, in the name of Abu Ali Mustafa, carried out suspect actions which harmed the supreme interest of our people and gave Israel the opportunity to intensify its repression of our people."
In a statement issued in Gaza City, the council - chaired by Yasser Arafat deplored that "these suspect actions [that] gave Israel a pretext to step up its escalation and carry out its aggressive plans against our towns, villages and refugee camps," in reference to the Israeli army's re-occupation of sectors of autonomous Palestinian West Bank cities.
The Palestinian, Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, also condemned Monday the decision by the Palestinian Authority to outlaw the PFLP.
In a statement published on its web site, Hamas said, "At a time when our people need more than ever to strengthen their national unity the Authority announces a very grave decision, to outlaw armed wings of national and Islamic organizations, which means that fighters against Israel will be tracked down."
"We call on it to reverse this decision, support the fighters and end all security cooperation with the enemy," Hamas said.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian gunman was killed after he opened fire on a group of Israelis and wounded at least four people in illegally occupied Jerusalem Monday morning, Jerusalem Police Chief Mickey Levy said.
The shooting incident took place near a busy office of the Motor Vehicle Licensing Bureau in a commercial zone of Jerusalem, Levy added.
Two of the wounded were listed as in serious condition.
The unidentified gunman was a resident of the West Bank and was shot dead by an Israeli soldier, who happened to be at the scene, according to the police chief.
Witnesses said that the gunman continued shooting with a pistol even after he was shot.
The police were investigating reports that other people in the area also fired at the gunman, Levy said.
Meanwhile, Israel's Army Radio reported that the gunman was a member of the PFLP, which is active in villages in the Bethlehem area.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday he was pleased that the Palestinian Authority had outlawed the armed wing of the PFLP.
"That is a good move," Powell said of Sunday's decision made after the PFLP claimed responsibility for the murder last week of the Israeli Tourism Minister.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat "has given instructions to his various organizations to implement a cease-fire and if they don't follow his instructions or violate them, that's a challenge to his authority," he said.
"I am glad to see that he is responding to that challenge," Powell told reporters accompanying him back to Washington from Shanghai.
Powell noted that he had spoken on Sunday with both Arafat and Sharon, as well as Jordan's King Abdullah II, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, and top E.U. diplomat Javier Solana.
In each conversation, Powell urged that immediate steps be taken to calm tensions that erupted last Wednesday when the Israeli tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi, was killed.
Israel has demanded that Arafat arrest and hand over those responsible or face consequences. Arafat has refused to extradite the suspects, saying that hey are under the jurisdiction of the PA, which will properly deal with them.
Similarly, Israel has refused to extradite to Palestine several Jewish settlers suspected of killing several Palestinians in an Palestinian-ruled areas in the West Bank..
Between Zeevi's October 17 murder and late Sunday, Israel has sent its tanks into six autonomous Palestinian towns, killing at least 24 Palestinians in incursions unprecedented since the Palestinian Authority was set up in 1994.
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