| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| Arafat is "Godfather"; PA is "Mafia"; Sharon is "Daddy Bear" |
Ariel Sharon is coming to Washington in a few days essentially to coordinate with the Pentagon and CIA for the bloodshed that is yet to come, including a possibly regional war of considerable dimensions and destiny. This is Sharon's moment of greatest triumph and "opportunity", one he has worked strenuously to achieve all his life.
Sharon is now scheduled to meet with George W and team at the White House on 7 February. This could well be the meeting that will decide just how the "new world order" will be enforced in the new Middle East, and just who in the region can expect to find themselves under bombs and missiles and sniper/assassin scopes as this fateful year of 2002 proceeds at lightning speed.
(Agence France-Presse, Jerusalem, 27 January): The Israeli daily Maariv said Sunday that US envoy Anthony Zinni dubbed the Palestinian Authority "the mafia" and its leader Yasser Arafat "the Godfather" at a private dinner in Washington over the weekend.
The mediator reportedly said that in his view there was no chance of reaching a political settlement with Arafat, whom another daily, Yediot Aharonot, said Zinni had branded an "incorrigible liar."
According to the Hebrew-language Maariv, Zinni, an Italian American, called Arafat the "capo di tutti capi", Italian for the head of all mafia leaders, in remarks to the AIPAC Israeli lobby in Washington.
The US envoy also used harsh words about Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub, heads of preventative security in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank respectively, whom he also compared to "godfathers".
"The one boasts about the number of people he has killed, and the other boasts about the number of weapons he has," Maariv said.
By contrast, Zinni did not stint on compliments for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a former general like the US envoy, whom he affectionately termed "daddy bear".
"The whole world is on guard against Sharon, but when I got to know him, I discovered a sort of 'daddy bear', always positive towards me, ready to help me immediately and alway proposing constructive solutions," Zinni said, according to Maariv.
Yediot for its part quoted Zinni as saying that in his recent talks in the Middle East Arafat "told me bare-faced lies until I reached the conclusion that this is a completely untrustworthy individual."
The daily said a classified report of the meeting was sent from Washington to Jerusalem this weekend.
| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/1/589.htm |