-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Israeli cabinet turmoil over toppling of Arafat Special report: Israel and the Middle East Ewen MacAskill in Jerusalem Friday July 6, 2001 The Guardian The Israeli government coalition is in turmoil after a row over the previously unthinkable option of whether to launch a massive military strike to topple the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. The option has been put on hold, though the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is said to be in favour if there is a further Palestinian "outrage" against Israel, according to the Hebrew press yesterday. Two rightwing ministers, pushing for the harder line against Mr Arafat, said they would boycott the cabinet indefinitely because of its failure to agree a military strike. The Labour foreign secretary, Shimon Peres, detested by the right for having signed the Oslo peace agreement with Mr Arafat eight years ago, resisted the move to escalate the military campaign. But the Hebrew daily newspaper, Ma'ariv, reported that Mr Sharon favoured removing Mr Arafat, and quoted "confidants" of the prime minister as saying that the Palestinian leader was more trouble than he was worth for Israel. It said the "confidants" predicted that a military strike would be made in the event of another Palestinian outrage, and that Mr Sharon had reached "the point of no return". Questioned at a press conference in Berlin, on the first leg of a two-day trip to Germany and France, Mr Sharon denied the report: "We don't involve ourselves in the question of who stands at the head of another authority," he said. But he said Israel did have a problem with Mr Arafat's pattern of behaviour. The toppling of Mr Arafat could prove too big a gamble for Israel. The anger of both the Palestinians and the international community would be enormous, and the chaos that would follow could benefit Islamic militant groups such as Hamas. In radio interviews yesterday Mr Peres ridiculed his rightwing colleagues: "They [the ministers] have proposals, and afterwards air them on the radio, on how the uprising can be ended at the drop of a hat. I have the unpleasant duty to act as a brake." Two rightwing ministers, Avigdor Lieberman, the national infrastructure minister, and Rehavam Ze'evi, the tourism minister, are to boycott cabinet meetings. Shlomo Benizri, the labour and social affairs minister, was also reported to have pushed for military action, but did not join the boycott. During cabinet exchanges, one minister said: "Who could be worse than Arafat?" Mr Peres, who regards excessive military force as counter-productive, retorted: "Hamas." But even the defence minis ter, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Mr Peres's Labour party colleague, said yesterday that Mr Arafat had completed his historic role as a leader of peace. There were senior Palestinians who were more pragmatic and with whom it would be possible to continue the peace process. He did not name names. There is no obvious successor to Mr Arafat: the next leader could be one of his colleagues from his days in exile in Tunis and Beirut or, more likely, one of the younger generation born and brought up on the West Bank and Gaza. Mr Ben-Eliezer predicted a lengthy military confrontation with the Palestinians. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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