By Barry Schweid
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Israel’s finance minister proposed on Tuesday that Yasser Arafat be exiled, saying the Palestinian leader had taken “a strategic decision to hurt us as much as he can.”
Silvan Shalom, who also is deputy prime minister, was in Washington for talks with Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
He told reporters over lunch that Israel was experiencing the worst recession in its history and that terrorism, which discourages tourists and investors, was one of the main causes.
On the bright side, Shalom said technology giant Hewlett-Packard had decided to build a research and development factory in Israel and that France was committed to a major water treatment project there.
And, he said, O’Neill had agreed to move quickly to determine if Israeli banks meet U.S. anti-money laundering standards.
Shalom is in the process of trying to sell the last two Israeli state-run banks, Leumi and the Israel Discount bank, to private investors.
However, Shalom said the terror attacks were taking an unacceptable civilian and financial toll on Israel. “If other countries were in the same situation they would not take this so long,” he said.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher repeated on Tuesday a call by the Bush administration that Arafat curb attacks on Israel. Boucher said if reports that Saudi Arabia wanted to reach out to Israel panned out “it would be a significant and positive step.”
But the first, crucial step, Boucher said, would be for Arafat to arrest terrorists and dismantle their organizations.
Shalom said Arafat was responsible for more terror attacks than Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, two organizations branded as terror groups by the State Department.
“The cause of the terror is Arafat and as long as he is there we cannot stop the terror,” Shalmon said.
The Israeli ambassador, David Ivry, said the Palestinian Authority had imported more potent rockets that threaten Israeli cities even though the technology was not very sophisticated.
If you fire a rocket at Tel Aviv and miss your target by a few streets it really doesn’t matter, Ivry said.
The Bush administration takes the position that Arafat is the leader of the Palestinian people and there no point in trying to get around him.
Israel has tried staking out other Palestinians for negotiations on a cease-fire, but Shalom said those talks did not accomplish much because Arafat was in charge.
Israelis feel Arafat “is getting crazy,” Shalom said. His people are suffering and he is trying to create more suicide bombers.
“If he is not in the region, other Palestinians will feel free to negotiate,” Shalom said, stressing that exiling Arafat was his suggestion and not the policy of the Israeli government.
But, he said, “the terror will not stop as long as Arafat is there.”
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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