JERUSALEM — Israel and Washington have reached a secret agreement on conditions for ousting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the U.S. topples Saddam Hussein in Iraq, a leading Israeli newspaper reported Sunday.
Reached by Knight Ridder Newspapers, spokesmen for both Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv declined to either confirm or deny the report carried in the tabloid Yediot Aharanot under the headline, “After Saddam: It is Going to be Arafat’s Turn.”
But Palestinian Authority regime change has been a long-standing goal of Sharon, whose Likud Party recently swept national elections and who has rejected Arafat as a suitable negotiating peace partner. Sharon has dispatched trusted aide Dov Weisglass to Washington several times in recent months and, according to the newspaper report, the U.S. and Israel now have a secret agreement — in writing. It did not report the terms.
But Weisglass told state-run Israel Radio over the weekend that, rather than exile the Palestinian leader, or kill him, Israel wants the Palestinians to create the position of a powerful prime minister, leaving Arafat in a ceremonial role as president. Israel has such a system.
If Arafat refuses the transfer of power, “We’ll kick him out of here with American authorization,” according to an unnamed “high-ranking Israeli official” quoted in the article. “In the White House’s eyes, Arafat is no different from Saddam Hussein,” the official told the paper.

— Carol Rosenberg, Knight

Ridder Newspapers (KRT)