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Killing Arafat an option: Israel

REUTERS, Jerusalem
Israel's vice premier said yesterday killing Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was an option in its threat to "remove" him as an obstacle to peace.
"Killing (him) is definitely one of the options," Ehud Olmert, a mainstream member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet, told Israel Radio.
"We are trying to eliminate all the heads of terror, and Arafat is one of the heads of terror," Olmert said.
Israel's Maariv newspaper reported yesterday that Avi Dichter, chief of the Shin Bet domestic security service, said in internal discussions it would be better to kill Arafat rather than expel him.
Dichter, the report said, believes Arafat's death would have a shortterm effect, touching off protests in the Palestinian territories that would last only several weeks, whereas exile would return him to the world stage and win him sympathy.
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Palestinian chief peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said in response: "This is the thinking and action of the mafia not a government."
Erekat told Reuters that Israel was "determined to kill President Arafat and throw the Palestinians into chaos and anarchy."
AFP from Jerusalem adds: Israel indicated yesterday it was likely to further isolate rather than immediately expel Arafat after a backlash from the Palestinians and the international community over its decision to approve the "removal" of the 74-year-old leader.
"His expulsion is perhaps one of the ways of getting rid of him, but it is also possible to isolate him totally in the Muqataa," said Industry Minister Ehud Olmert, referring to Arafat's battered headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
"Arafat cannot continue to be a factor in the Middle East scene. His expulsion is an option, his liquidation is another option. It is also possible to confine him to prison-like conditions," Olmert, who is also deputy prime minister, told Israeli
radio.
"In this scenario, he would be cut off from the world. He would be unable to receive anyone and would not be able to communicate by phone."
The Israeli security cabinet's decision on Thursday to agree in principle to "remove" the veteran leader has provoked widespread international condemnation and anger among Palestinians.
Israel, however, criticised reaction to the decision -- which was taken in the light of two deadly suicide attacks last Tuesday -- as hypocrisy.
Israel's decision has prompted near universal condemnation, with even its traditional ally the United States warning against the impact of any expulsion.
An editorial in the leading Israeli daily Haaretz yesterday called the move "stupid".
"As could be expected, the decision instantly led to the strengthening of Arafat's status among Palestinians, as well as in the international arena."