Arafat risks civil war with arrests

By PHIL REEVES

BETHLEHEM - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat yesterday pushed ahead with a sweeping crackdown against Palestinian militants as he attempted to fend off the most serious challenge to his rule since the signing of the Oslo accords eight years ago.

Officials said his security services had arrested 110 people in house raids in pockets of Palestinian-controlled land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But the raids failed to convince Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who said last night that he would be launching a new "war on terrorism."

This would be modelled on the United States campaign and Israel "would use every single means they use". Just back from the US, where President George W. Bush gave him the green light to use whatever military response Israel deemed necessary, he declared: "The one who kills us, his blood will be shed by us."

If Arafat's move is genuine, rather than a show for the international television cameras, then his rule is at risk of being split by civil war.

Many of his security forces are as loyal to the militants as they are to his authority and have been reluctant to take tough measures against radical activists.

Israel's policy of responding to Palestinian attacks by bombing their security headquarters - on show again last night as F-16 jets dropped 750kg bombs on Jenin and helicopter gunships fired into the Gaza Strip - has helped harden their views.

There is a belief in the Arab world, shared by some Western analysts, that elements in Israel's security establishment have tried to foment civil strife inside the occupied territories to pressure or topple Arafat.

Israel's armed forces are blamed by many for provoking Hamas into renewing their attacks by assassinating the military leader Mahmoud Abu Hanoud last month when the group had suspended suicide bombings in Israel.

The main targets of Arafat's roundup were activists from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In the Gaza Strip, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, was under house arrest. The director of his office, Ismail Hanieh, was taken into custody as was Ismael Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas political leader in Gaza.

A foretaste of possible internal strife came in the Deheisha refugee camp in Bethlehem when dozens of Palestinian police and intelligence agents, dispatched on a late-night mission to arrest militants, were held back by a large crowd, firing Kalashnikovs in the air. The police withdrew, empty-handed after a tense standoff.

Yesterday, a Hamas spokesman in Bethlehem, Sheikh Abdul Majid Atta, was freely wandering the streets of the camp, airing his view that the Palestinian Authority's latest round of arrests was a joke. Unexpectedly, he also said Hamas would seek to prevent any attempt to bring about the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, adding that it had supported the last ceasefire declared by Arafat after September 11, but that this was shattered by Israel's assassination policy.

Opposition to Arafat's arrests is clearly strong on the ground. "I am against them." said Mustafa Khmayis, a camp resident. "Sharon isn't giving us anything. The American diplomacy is not serious. They just want cover for their war on Afghanistan."

Colonel Abdullah Daoud, head of Palestinian intelligence services in Bethlehem, insisted that the crackdown was serious. He admitted that his men "hesitated" when asked to arrest militants.

The roundup followed Arafat's declaration of a state of emergency, outlawing all extremist forces, including elements of his own Fatah movement, and particularly those which have committed attacks on Israeli civilians.

Yesterday that was followed by an order from the Palestinian Authority banning people from carrying weapons, holding demonstrations without a permit, or using mosques or loudspeakers to disseminate political propaganda.

"Whoever does not comply with the ceasefire will be punished," it said.

Whether the order can be enforced remains highly unlikely. There are many tens of thousands of weapons in the occupied territories, and few Palestinians will be prepared to lay down arms.

Arafat's clampdown is being watched closely by the US, which has been angered by his tendency to promise to act against militants, then doing nothing, freeing some after arresting them.

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