ARAFAT'S OUT By URI DAN and DEBORAH ORIN
May 9, 2002 -- President Bush has decided that Yasser Arafat has got to go - and that Mideast peace talks will remain on hold until the aging Palestinian leader has become nothing but a figurehead, a top Israeli source said yesterday.
During Bush's talk with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday, they reached a "full understanding" on the "need for a complete change in the Palestinian Authority" - including a new leader, said the source, who returned to Israel with Sharon yesterday.
"In their conversations at the White House, there was an understanding that Arafat should serve in a symbolic post," the source said
U.S. officials did not confirm the plan to encourage Arafat's ouster - but they hardly gave the Palestinian president a ringing endorsement either.
Asked yesterday if Bush believes Sharon should negotiate with Arafat, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer replied:
"The president is focused on more than any one person. The president's focus includes Yasser Arafat, but it's broader than that. "
Fleischer went on:
"Progress can be made by talking with a number of people, including . . . those people who work diligently in the Palestinian Authority to try to find ways to bring about reforms."
In a joint press conference Tuesday, Bush and Sharon stressed that they sought major "reforms" in the Palestinian Authority.
But in their 80-minute meeting - which was interrupted by word of what turned out to be the latest Palestinian homicide bombing - the two leaders also agreed privately that:
* There is no way to begin "a serious political process" - that is, peace talks - with the current "composition of the Palestinian Authority."
* A provisional Palestinian government should be created under another leader - or leaders.
* That would be followed "in a very short period of time" by the creation of a constitution and new elections.
Yesterday, Arafat sought to underline his leadership role in a televised address that began "As the president of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the president of the Palestinian Authority . . . "
He denounced terrorism and insisted he was doing his part to fight it .
"I gave my orders and directions to all the Palestinian security forces to confront and prevent all terror attacks against Israeli civilians from any Palestinian side or parties, and at the same time to confront any aggression or attack on Palestinian civilians, whether by Israeli soldiers or settlers, which we all condemn," Arafat said.
Several potential successors for the 72-year-old Arafat have been mentioned.
They include Abu Ala, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council; Abu Mazen, head of the PLO executive committee; and Arafat's two security chiefs, Jibril Rajoub, of the West Bank, and Mohammed Dahlan, of the Gaza Strip.
The rivalry between Rajoub and Dahlan and the general splintering of Arafat's security and police forces is a major U.S. concern.
Bush told Sharon that CIA Director George Tenet would be sent to the region shortly to try to unify the various forces under one commander.
But Palestinian leaders have repeatedly rejected Israeli efforts to marginalize Arafat.
Sharon's government declared the PLO leader "irrelevant" earlier this year - and then confined him, until last week, in his Ramallah headquarters.
Yesterday, Dahlan said any effort to bypass Arafat was "not acceptable."
"The Palestinian street hears and respects Arafat's opinions and not the calls of Israeli officials," he said.
He said Sharon wanted "a leadership that would be far from the Palestinian people's aspirations," and urged Israeli leaders to oust the prime minister instead of trying to topple Arafat.