IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon denies strenuously the reports from Washington that he said there last week that most Yesha communities will, in the end, be dismantled. He said this morning that such reports about his remarks at a closed forum are a "total distortion" of his words. Yaalon explained that as Chief of Staff, "I wouldn't relate to Israeli positions, but only to the way the other side sees us… I said that at the Barak-Arafat-Clinton talks in Camp David in June 2000, the Palestinians understood that the Israeli side expressed a willingness to evacuate most of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria," yet still did not agree to sign a peace agreement and soon afterwards began a war. The IDF Spokeswoman added that the Chief of Staff was responding to a question about the dismantling of settlements - implying that his answer was that even such a move by Israel would not suffice for the Arabs to agree to live with Israel in peace.



Yaalon also said that he did not call for the expulsion of Arafat - something that Prime Minister Sharon has so far refused to do - but rather for "killing him softly." He said that as long as Arafat is still functioning, we will have a problem stopping terrorism and reaching an agreement.