It now appears that Prime Minister Sharon is leaning towards allowing arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat to attend the Arab League summit in Beirut - but Arafat himself may choose not to go. Arafat now says that if the Americans don\'t issue guarantees that he will be allowed to return to the autonomous areas, he will choose to stay put and not attend the conference. Israel will make its final decision tomorrow.
The American position is that Arafat should be allowed to go to Beirut. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed in a TV interview last night that Arafat should be permitted to leave for Beirut - but said that he must not be allowed back. Netanyahu said that Israel must exile Arafat and dismantle the Palestinian Authority - including the confiscation of the illegal weapons being used against Israel in daily attacks.
A special UN report calls, not for the first time, for the world body to dispatch an international delegation to enforce peace in Israel. Special UN representative John Doggard of South Africa, who wrote the report, says, \"Only the presence of an international force with the authority to supervise and reduce the use of violence can bring about the renewal of the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.\" Israel has often rejected similar proposals; some in Israel point to the UN peace-keeping force on the Lebanese border that turned a blind eye, or worse, to the Hizbullah terrorists who kidnapped and murdered three Israeli soldiers in October 2000.
The American position is that Arafat should be allowed to go to Beirut. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed in a TV interview last night that Arafat should be permitted to leave for Beirut - but said that he must not be allowed back. Netanyahu said that Israel must exile Arafat and dismantle the Palestinian Authority - including the confiscation of the illegal weapons being used against Israel in daily attacks.
A special UN report calls, not for the first time, for the world body to dispatch an international delegation to enforce peace in Israel. Special UN representative John Doggard of South Africa, who wrote the report, says, \"Only the presence of an international force with the authority to supervise and reduce the use of violence can bring about the renewal of the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.\" Israel has often rejected similar proposals; some in Israel point to the UN peace-keeping force on the Lebanese border that turned a blind eye, or worse, to the Hizbullah terrorists who kidnapped and murdered three Israeli soldiers in October 2000.