They've truly got Yasser Arafat by the balls now. He was "hired" to do a control job, very well paid and armed. Then he was suppose to deliver at Camp David where the Americans and Israelis applied all their strength and cunning, bribes and threats, to bring about not a real peace but a new Middle East "arrangement" designed to restructure and buttress previous control arrangements. Now Arafat has been threatened with dissolution of his regime, including a likely coup attempt that failed as the following article suggests. Indeed, DCI Tenet may have had to go over to the region to speak with Arafat very privately about this little matter and reassure him that he still could stay in place and on top if in fact a way could be found for him to play the role he was hired to do with even more help from the CIA and money from the Europeans.

JERUSALEM - USA TODAY, June 1: The powerful Palestinian security chief in the West Bank was accused late Wednesday of heading a U.S.- Israeli plot to overthrow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Col. Jibril Rajoub, 54, commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security force in the West Bank, was denounced in a signed leaflet issued by a faction of his own political group, the Fatah movement, which reports to Arafat and has the loyalty of most Palestinians.

The leaflet could be the first sign of a serious split within the highest ranks of the Palestinian Authority, which governs some parts of the Palestinian territories and seeks an independent Palestinian state.

The leaflet alleges that there is an "Israeli plan based on assassinating brother Abu Amar (Arafat) or deporting him from the homeland to create an alternative leadership that would be prepared to succumb to America and Israel."

It names Arafat's deputy Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as a co-conspirator with Rajoub in the alleged plot to overthrow Arafat, citing "the recent visit of Abu Mazen to America and his meeting with (Secretary of State) Colin Powell, who proposed to him the American plan."

The statement calls on Rajoub's estimated 10,000 armed loyalists to rise up against him. The men who back Rajoub represent a significant portion - perhaps as much as 20% - of the armed Palestinian forces in the West Bank and Gaza. Rajoub's men are the only Palestinian security agency that has not been accused by Israel of participating in the current uprising, which has claimed more than 550 lives. Contacted by telephone late Wednesday, Rajoub called the leaflet a "shameless forgery."

He said, "Fatah has nothing to do with such a big lie. It's not published by Fatah."

But sources within Fatah, which is divided among various factions, confirmed the leaflet's authenticity.

Some Israeli politicians have openly talked about the need to replace Arafat with a more pragmatic leader willing to sign a peace deal.

This is not the first time Rajoub has been mentioned as a potential successor to Arafat, 72. Four years ago, the Palestinian leader formally dismissed Rajoub after the younger man made a high-profile visit to the USA and was touted as a possible heir to Arafat. But Rajoub was soon reinstated.

Since then, Rajoub's power has grown and he has played a central role in diplomatic negotiations and security coordination with Israel and the United States. Many of his men have received CIA training as part of the CIA's security coordination effort.

Analysts were surprised that such a document would surface and some expressed doubts about the leaflet's authenticity. They agreed, however, that many Palestinian activists are concerned that a deal to end the eight-month intifada, or uprising, without tangible gains is in the works.

"There are certainly fears that Israel and the United States are trying to undermine Arafat, but I would be extremely surprised if these fears would be expressed in a document like this," said Shibley Telhami, a Middle East expert at the University of Maryland.

David Schenker, an expert on Palestinian politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, also expressed caution about the document.

If it is authentic, however, the leaflet reflected "splits that until now have been below the surface," Schenker said.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Palestinian security commanders met in Gaza late Wednesday for the second time this week to discuss security. Both sides said the meetings would continue next week.

WASHINGTON (AP - 12 June) - As predecessor Bill Clinton did, President Bush has backed off a campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and will keep it in Tel Aviv, at least for now.

On the diplomatic front, meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell, traveling in Europe with Bush, arranged to meet in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday evening with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of Israel.

The purpose is to review talks CIA Director George Tenet has been holding with Israeli and Palestinian officials designed to extend a makeshift cease-fire, an Israeli official said.

The Bush administration said Monday that while the president remains committed to starting a process to move the embassy to Jerusalem, which Israel considers its capital, the mission will stay put.

The location of the embassy is a sensitive issue in efforts to negotiate peace in the Middle East, where close to 500 Palestinians and Israelis have died since violence flared anew in late September.

During his campaign, Bush promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem, an act that would lend support to Israeli claims to the city as its undivided capital. Palestinians insist part of Jerusalem should be the capital of a Palestinian state.

When former President Clinton first ran in 1992, he, too, advocated moving the embassy from Tel Aviv. Clinton never acted on the promise, even though Congress several times tried to force his hand by approving money for the move. He said the embassy would change conditions for negotiations committed to be both sides to determine the city's future.

Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which authorized the embassy's relocation, but left the final decision to the White House. Citing national security considerations, Bush notified Powell on Monday that he was extending an administrative ban on the move for another six months.

In March, Powell told the House International Relations Committee that arrangements to move the embassy had not begun. ``And in light of the very difficult situation that exists right now, we'll continue to examine how that process should start,'' Powell said.

The issue resurfaced in August 2000, when then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Israeli television he understood that Clinton planned to move the embassy on his last day in office. Again, the move never happened.