ARABS-ISRAEL - July 8 - Arafat Wants Stronger US Role.

Arafat and other PA officials believe Powell's recent visit to the region made no impact on the deteriorating situation and want a far stronger US intervention. On July 9 Arafat's aide Ahmad Abdel Rahman was quoted by IHT as saying: "So, tell me, where are the Americans?" It quoted Arafat as saying: "They are a new administration, and definitely they are in need of some time, OK. But now six months have passed and they have international responsibility. I am reminding the Americans that President George Bush the father had started all this with the peaceful (late Oct./early Nov. 1991) meeting in Madrid". Arafat said he sent a letter to President George W. Bush on July 5 urging him to help Israelis and Palestinians "revive their hope in the peace process" and complaining that the Americans had allowed Israel, and not a neutral party, to be the judge of the efforts to restore calm. (The letter is a classic illustration of how differently the Israelis and the Palestinians perceive what is happening). Arafat said he told Bush: "Today, the seven-day calming period asked for by Mr. Powell ends". He said PM Sharon "has not even started looking at his watch". The letter said during those seven days, "nine Palestinians were killed, including five Israeli-sponsored assassinations... In spite of (the Israeli attacks), I am exerting 100% effort to stop Palestinian operations against Israel". (He did not mention that Israelis were killed by Palestinian gunmen in the same period).

On July 6 the departing US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying Arafat had not yet made the "100% effort". He said Arafat "never really gave up violence as a tool for achieving his objectives" and backed Israel's view that calm had not been restored. But UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said Arafat was incapable of gaining complete control of a chaotic situation and bringing violence to an abrupt halt. Arafat said the CIA-sponsored Israeli-PA security meetings, including the most recent session at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv on July 6, had not proved productive. Without independent international observers in the field, Arafat added, it would be impossible to monitor either side's compliance with the ceasefire plan devised by CIA Director George Tenet. Arafat said he anticipated military escalation by the Israelis. "It is a secret?" he asked. "They are speaking about it. Stages of escalation. It became not a secret".

(In recent Israeli government meetings, senior officials debated large-scale military operations against the PA and then voted to continue for the moment with a policy of "targeted" killings of suspected militants. As evidence of what he says is his "100% effort" to clamp down on violence, Arafat pulled from his jacket pocket a typed report in Arabic from the PA intelligence service. The report, he said, contained detailed information provided to the Israelis a day after the June 1 suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv discotheque that killed 20 young people. The PA had learned that the man who drove the suicide bomber to the beachside disco was a longtime informant for Israeli intelligence, Arafat said, a Palestinian who had been granted Israeli citizenship and had resettled in Israel like many "collaborators". (The bomber himself was a Palestinian with a Jordanian passport, and the militant Hamas group took responsibility for the attack). Arafat referred to another deadly terrorist attack in Israel, years ago, in which he said Palestinian collaborators with Israeli intelligence played a leading role. He added: "I have many secrets. You are speaking with General Yasser Arafat". (He appeared to be trying to make the point that the Tel Aviv bomber had no connection to the PA but did have links at least indirectly with Israel). Asked to spell out what he was suggesting, he said, "I'm giving you facts and leaving it for everyone to arrive to realities".