US veto: 'Licence to kill Arafat'

By Nick Thorpe BBC correspondent in Jerusalem

The US veto has gone down well in Israel.

"If you're asking me if it's a licence to kill Arafat, well, in a way I think that is how many Israelis will see it," said veteran journalist and Arafat biographer Danny Rubinstein.

But he does not think any move will be carried out immediately - probably not until the next suicide bombing.

Arafat supporters have vowed to fight any attempt to remove him

The original wording of the Israeli security cabinet statement on Arafat, last Thursday, was deliberately ambiguous, speaking only of its decision to "remove" Mr Arafat.

A more peaceful alternative would simply be to increase the intensity of the siege around the "mukata" - the Palestinian leader's battered compound in the heart of Ramallah, he believes.

And cut off all his communications with the outside world.

'Disastrous'

Nevertheless, the possibility of the assassination of Yasser Arafat is certainly on the table now, Mr Rubinstein believes.

It is the logical extension of the rhetoric of a government which has blamed Arafat for every act of violence since it came to power, he says.

And a step which he personally believes would be disastrous.

If you destroy Arafat, you destroy the Palestinian Authority ... then Israel would have to re-impose a full occupation in all its forms Danny Rubinstein

"If you destroy Arafat, then you destroy the Palestinian Authority [set up under the Oslo accords a decade ago].

"And then Israel would have to re-impose a full occupation in all its forms - and take full responsibility for everything, from garbage collection to security."

Elite units of the Israeli army are reported to have trained for an operation to seize Arafat for the past two years.

They came close last year, during the height of the siege at Arafat's compound, but were called off at the last moment, allegedly after US pressure.

When the decision to remove him was announced last week, Arafat, basking in the unexpected publicity, showed his supporters his gun, and boasted that he would not be taken alive.

How to do it

The lack of a serious political opposition to Ariel Sharon's government is one factor, influencing the prime minister's next move.

Another is a gradual shift within his cabinet towards action against Arafat.

The US has tried to groom and alternative to Arafat

The defence minister Shaul Mofaz urged such a move when he was army chief-of-staff, and his words have even more weight as a government member.

His replacement as chief-of-staff in July 2002 - General Moshe Ya'alon - was originally more cautious, but even he is reported to have changed his mind, and is now understood to favour a move to "deport" Arafat.

The Israeli media has been full of speculation about just how this might be done - by introducing gas into the Ramallah compound, for example.

Most Israelis support their government's view, and the US Government's view, that Arafat is the problem.

And the number of those who see the solution in his removal, whatever that means, and whatever the consequences, is certainly growing.