World News 05-12-2001 Arafat Yards From Death As Israel Turns The Screw who: Yasser Arafat what: Trapped in his office as Israel sends in F16 fighters where: Ramallah, West Bank when: Yesterday snippet: "A forlorn Yassir Arafat could only watch powerless from a top-storey window yesterday as missiles demolished a security post barely 50 yards from where he was working in Ramallah," begins Daniel McGrory in this morning`s Times. After destroying mr Arafat`s potential escape routes by gunning his helicopters and ripping up the runway of his personal jet on Monday, Israeli forces yesterday began bombing his own compund, while maintainig they are not trying to assassinate him. "If this was their intention they could have done so rather than injure four of his security guards," suggests the Times report. The wave of bombing, which took place in a highly populated area, claimed two lives. "Schoolboy Mohammed Abu Marasa`s brief life ended in a splash of blood on a gravestone," says the Guardian`s Suzanne Goldenberg. "The 15-year-old was cut down by flying metal as he ran through a cemetery, desperate to escape the Israeli F-16 war plane pulverising a nearby security compound. `Everyone is going to taste death and we shall make trials of you with evil and with good, and to us you will be returned,` the inscription reads on the gravestone where he fell." Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has taken a hard line approach after deciding "that Mr Arafat`s self-rule Palestinian Authority was `an entity which supports terrorism` and should be `dealt with accordingly`," reports the Telegraph, noting that the Israeli cabinet will rescind the action should Mr Arafat take action against the Palestinian terrorists responsible for recent atrocities in Jerusalem. "But no one imagines that he and his security forces will rush to do Israel`s bidding while the leader is being humiliated and the headquarters of his security forces are being bombarded." As if to concur, Mr Arafat, in a television interview shortly after the rocket strike, said: "The Israelis don`t want me to succeed and for this he [Sharon] is escalating his military activities against our people, against our towns, against our cities, against our establishments. He doesn`t want a peace process to start." [... more]

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