Prime Minister Sharon's warning on Friday that he is no longer "committed to the safety of Yasser Arafat" continues to cause a stir. Sharon's detractors say he's merely posturing in order to bolster his deteriorating position in the upcoming evacuation referendum, while his advocates say he didn't really mean it in the first place - and the Americans are upset at him for what they see as going back on his word to U.S. President Bush.
Sharon's controversial words referred to his meeting with Bush ten days ago in Washington [paraphrased]: "I told him [Bush] that though I had agreed in a meeting with him three years ago not to harm Arafat, I no longer felt obligated by that promise."
Even sources close to Sharon admitted that they had not planned to use the "Arafat" threat at this point, and that it was a "card we had saved for when things got really bad." Recent polls show that support for Sharon's evacuation plan among the nearly 200,000 Likud members is dwindling.
Labor MK Avraham Burg said, "It is a disgrace that an Israeli Prime Minister is willing to endanger regional security at the price of political gains within the Likud membership."
Minister Uzi Landau, the Likud's leading ministerial opponent to the disengagement/expulsion plan, said, "I can't understand why this is discussed in public. It would be better to do it, and only then to talk about it."
Ministers Ehud Olmert and Gideon Ezra, two of Sharon's most loyal supporters, both said today that the Prime Minister did not mean literally that Arafat's life is on the line. "Sharon's statement does not mean that tomorrow morning Arafat will be deported," Ezra said this morning. Olmert said the same, adding that it is not undesirable to leave a measure of vagueness to the Prime Minister's words.
Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, who opposes the evacuation plan, said he would ask Sharon at today's Cabinet meeting to make clear that in the event that Arafat is even indirectly related to a major terror attack against Israel, he would be expelled from the Palestinian Authority.
U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice hurried, shortly after Sharon's words on Friday, to phone Prime Ministerial aide Dov Weisglass and express her displeasure at what she had heard. The U.S., Russia and Great Britain all stated that Israel must not harm Arafat.
Sharon's controversial words referred to his meeting with Bush ten days ago in Washington [paraphrased]: "I told him [Bush] that though I had agreed in a meeting with him three years ago not to harm Arafat, I no longer felt obligated by that promise."
Even sources close to Sharon admitted that they had not planned to use the "Arafat" threat at this point, and that it was a "card we had saved for when things got really bad." Recent polls show that support for Sharon's evacuation plan among the nearly 200,000 Likud members is dwindling.
Labor MK Avraham Burg said, "It is a disgrace that an Israeli Prime Minister is willing to endanger regional security at the price of political gains within the Likud membership."
Minister Uzi Landau, the Likud's leading ministerial opponent to the disengagement/expulsion plan, said, "I can't understand why this is discussed in public. It would be better to do it, and only then to talk about it."
Ministers Ehud Olmert and Gideon Ezra, two of Sharon's most loyal supporters, both said today that the Prime Minister did not mean literally that Arafat's life is on the line. "Sharon's statement does not mean that tomorrow morning Arafat will be deported," Ezra said this morning. Olmert said the same, adding that it is not undesirable to leave a measure of vagueness to the Prime Minister's words.
Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, who opposes the evacuation plan, said he would ask Sharon at today's Cabinet meeting to make clear that in the event that Arafat is even indirectly related to a major terror attack against Israel, he would be expelled from the Palestinian Authority.
U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice hurried, shortly after Sharon's words on Friday, to phone Prime Ministerial aide Dov Weisglass and express her displeasure at what she had heard. The U.S., Russia and Great Britain all stated that Israel must not harm Arafat.