Is Arafat next on Israel hit list?

Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, considered by many the father of modern Arab terrorism, is scrambling to prevent becoming the next victim of a targeted assassination effort by Israel.

Yesterday, he expelled 20 wanted terrorists from his compound in a bid to forestall what he expected to be an imminent Israeli raid.

Last month, Israel killed Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Saturday his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. With good reason, Arafat has become increasingly worried he might be next. The Israeli Cabinet decided last year to "remove" Arafat, who it accuses of fomenting terror during 3? years of violence.

Arafat is holed up in his Ramallah compound, where he has been for nearly two years.

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During an Israeli military operation to clean out terrorists in the West Bank, about 40 fugitives from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group affiliated with Arafat's Fatah movement, sought refuge in Arafat's compound. Arafat made them leave last summer, but 26 came back in recently.

About a week ago, five of the most-wanted militants were thrown out after Israel threatened to raid the compound and get them, a Palestinian security official said on condition of anonymity. Nervous about Israeli troop movements in Ramallah, Arafat visited the 20 remaining terrorists about 3 a.m. yesterday and demanded they leave immediately, according to one of them, Ali Barghouti.

"We became fugitives to defend (Arafat) and now that we have become a burden, he is throwing us away," Barghouti said angrily.

The only fugitive allowed to stay was a terrorist paralyzed in fighting with Israel, Arafat said.

Some observers believe Israel is emboldened to continue to take out top terrorist leaders because of a muted response from Hamas and other groups following the killings of Yassin and Rantisi.

"The assassination of Yassin was timed for Arafat's removal," Diana Buttu, a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiations team, told United Press International. Buttu said that the Palestinian leadership firmly believes Israel now intends to force out Arafat out of the Palestinian territories and exile him to Egypt.

Sharon, now in the midst of a controversial plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip, does not want to appear weak to Israelis or Arabs. He does not want the Gaza withdrawal to look like Israel’s hasty withdrawal from southern Lebanon under Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

"Israel," admitted a senior Israeli official speaking off the record to United Press International, "would never want to repeat the mistake of south Lebanon."

Speaking hypothetically and stressing that he was not privy to inside information but only assuming what Israel might consider as a plan of action, the official advanced the theory that Israel might target the Hamas leadership prior to their unilateral pullout from the occupied territory, so that "it would not be viewed as a victory, as in south Lebanon."

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When little reaction came from the Arabs after Yassin's killing, said Buttu, Israel next targeted Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the man named to replace Yassin at the head of Hamas in Gaza. Both Yassin and Rantisi were killed in Gaza by missiles fired from attack helicopters.

Israel was given a powerful rationale for an attack on Arafat and the PLO leadership yesterday.

In an interview published in the Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab, PLO “foreign minister” Farouk Kaddoumi admitted the group never changed its charter declaring Israel has no right to exist as required by the Oslo Accords signed in 1993.

Kaddoumi also said when Arafat talks about the need to pursue the "struggle" against Israel, he is referring to the "armed struggle," the Jerusalem Post reported. In addition, Kaddoumi revealed the PLO has given him the "portfolio" of supporting the Iraqi resistance against the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.

"There is no doubt that the Palestinian revolution supports the Iraqi resistance and we have seen demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories in backing the intifada and resistance in Iraq," he said, according to the Post. "I'm in charge of this issue and I condemn the American position."

He noted the establishment of an armed group in Iraq named after slain Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin as an "excellent phenomenon" that would increase pressure on the U.S.

Kaddoumi is one of the few PLO leaders still living in exile in Tunisa.

Asked about U.S. and Israeli demands to halt terror attacks as a condition for resuming the peace process, Kaddoumi replied, according to the Jerusalem paper: "They can go to hell!"

Kaddoumi said though it is widely believed the PLO now recognizes Israel's right to existence, in fact the charter was never changed.

"The Palestinian national charter has not been amended until now," he explained. "It was said that some articles are no longer effective, but they were not changed. I'm one of those who didn't agree to any changes."

The armed struggle, he said, was the only way to force Israel to accept the demands of the Palestinians.

Kaddoumi was asked what Arafat means when he talks about the continuation of the "struggle."

He responded, according to the Post, "Yes, the national struggle must continue. I mean the armed struggle. In the past we abandoned our political parties in favor of the armed struggle.

Arafat's Fatah movement, he continued, "was established on the basis of the armed struggle and that this was the only way to leading to political negotiations that would force the enemy to accept our national aspirations. Therefore there is no struggle other than the armed military struggle."

Kaddoumi commented on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

"If Israel wants to leave the Gaza Strip, then it should do so," he told the Jordanian paper, according to the Post. "This means that the Palestinian resistance has forced it to leave. But the resistance will continue. Let the Gaza Strip be South Vietnam. We will use all available methods to liberate North Vietnam."