Peres defends Arafat as peace partner

JERUSALEM, OCT. 1. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr. Shimon Peres, on Monday defended the Palestinian President, Mr. Yasser Arafat, against mounting criticism in Israel, saying the alternatives if he were ousted would be much worse for the Jewish state.

``Let's say we assassinate him (Arafat). What happens after that?'' Mr. Peres told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. ``With all the criticism of Arafat, he is the only Palestinian who recognises the map in which Jordan and Israel exist''. He said Mr. Arafat's removal or departure would open the way for militant groups and a more radical leadership. ``Instead of him there will be Hamas, (Islamic) Jihad and (Lebanon's) Hizbollah. They will try to establish one country between Iraq and the sea,'' Mr. Peres said. The newspaper said Mr. Peres was ``convinced'' that the Israeli Army's Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon had decided to ``liquidate Arafat'', but Mr. Peres's spokesman said the report was ``not true''.

Mr. Peres and Mr. Arafat reaffirmed their commitment to a truce plan in a meeting last Wednesday, although violence has continued, including a car bomb that exploded near a Jerusalem shopping district on Monday.

The Qatar-based Al- Jazeera television said the Islamic Jihad movement of Palestine had claimed responsibility for the attack that injured no one but dealt the fragile ceasefire a fresh blow.

``Arafat wants to talk to us,'' Mr. Peres told the newspaper. ``Arafat wants to be accepted in the West. Arafat wants to abandon terror at some point. They (Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah) are terrorists in the fullest sense of the word''.

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded in southern Jerusalem on Monday, without causing any injuries, police said.

The car bomb was the first such attack since Mr. Arafat and Israel agreed on a ceasefire on Sept. 18.

- Reuters

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