The Americans are really full of themselves these days -- and it hardly started with 911. Down the road there are bound to be days of reckoning for all this craziness and arrogance.

[The Telegraph, London, 24/01/2002]: MONTHS of increasingly bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinians have reached the endgame, with Israeli politicians openly discussing how to remove Yasser Arafat from the scene.

Even the doveish foreign minister, Shimon Peres, warned Mr Arafat yesterday that his survival was at stake. "If he doesn't stop the terror, the terror will stop him. That's why we ask Arafat to be a leader," he said yesterday.

Mr Arafat's office in Ramallah looks like a corner of a chess board in the final moves of a game. He is boxed into a few squares, with Israeli tanks inching ever closer.

Diplomats agree that the Palestinian leader is in the direst situation in a career of almost 40 years. He has lost all credibility with Washington and even the Europeans - who have kept his self-rule government afloat - are begging him to change course.

But there is little sign of any change in the offing. "He does not seem to realise how serious his predicament is," said a recent visitor to his office.

Mr Arafat, 74, always interrupts visitors when they tell him he risks losing everything, saying that being besieged by Israeli forces in Beirut in 1982 was worse, and fighting the Jordanian army in 1970 was worse than that.

The Palestinian leader's standing in Washington plummeted after the Israeli navy intercepted a cargo ship full of Iranian arms, apparently destined for the Palestinian territories. Failing any credible explanation for the arms from Mr Arafat, the Israelis have persuaded Washington that he has allowed his subordinates to forge an alliance with Iran. The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has his hands free to do what he will. He can send tanks into Palestinian towns, destroy their homes and wipe out wanted suspects without barely a murmur of protest from abroad. Hawks in Israel believe the time has come to finish the long game of chess with Mr Arafat.

"We have no other choice than to put an end to the regime of Yasser Arafat," said Danny Naveh, a Right-wing minister without portfolio.

But there is no chance of Mr Arafat acceding to the wishes of the international community to round up Palestinian militants responsible for attacks on Israeli targets. These men are regarded as heroes by most Palestinians.

They see no reason why Mr Arafat should be Israel's policeman while the Israeli army roams freely through the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mr Arafat's weakness was amply demonstrated on Tuesday when a crowd stormed the prison in Nablus to demand the release of detained militants, after the Israeli army shot dead four wanted members of Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement.

The Israelis have two choices - to leave Mr Arafat confined to Ramallah or to force him into exile in an Arab capital. The third choice - to assassinate him - could be done, but is not thought to be on the agenda.

The government has not yet taken a decision to send him into exile, but the next major suicide bombing in Israel could force its hand.

To have Mr Arafat back in exile would paradoxically please many Palestinians. While they still see him as the symbol of their struggle, they recognise that his seven-year rule has been incompetent and corrupt, and his conduct of the 16-month uprising disastrous. Mr Arafat might also be pleased: he would be free to travel the world as figurehead of Palestine, while spared the responsibility of ruling three million of his countrymen.

The European Commission said yesterday that Israel had caused £9.5 million worth of damage to Palestinian projects funded by European taxpayers in the past year.

ANKARA [World Tribune, 24 January] - Western diplomatic sources said Al Qaida insurgents have infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an effort to determine whether the movement should make the Palestinian areas into their new home. The sources said Al Qaida appears to prefer the Gaza Strip over more distant locations such as Somalia.

Israeli military sources said Al Qaida agents have been steadily flowing into PA areas. The sources said they have formed close links with senior PA officials, including Mohammed Dahlan, the head of the Preventive Security Apparatus in the Gaza Strip.

Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden is said to be considering the Palestinian Authority as the new base for his Al Qaida movement, said a senior official here. "The organization [Al Qaida] has not yet been completely defeated," the official told the Ankara-based Turkish Daily News on Wednesday. "It will continue to cause more headaches for the international community."

The official, regarded as an expert on Afghanistan, said the Palestinian Authority could be the next address of Al Qaida, Middle East Newsline reported. The official said the movement would then join the Palestinian war against Israel.

Such a war, the diplomatic sources said would escalate as Al Qaida insurgents introduce nonconventional weapons. The sources said Al Qaida agents might have already transferred weapons of mass destruction technology to such Islamic insurgency groups as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

U.S. officials said the Al Qaida infrastructure in Afghanistan has been shattered and many insurgents are regrouping in Iran and Pakistan. But the officials said some leaders of the group are believed to have escaped South Asia by sea.

[Jerusalem Post Online - January, 24 2002]: Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat was declared persona non grata in New York today by state, local, and federal officials.

They called for designating the PA a terrorist organization and ending its presence in New York.

Gathered on the steps of City Hall, not far from where the World Trade Center once stood, officials from New York's city council and state assembly and the US House of Representatives announced plans to introduce resolutions that, if passed, will call for the close of the PA's office to the United Nations and declare both the PA and the PLO terrorist entities.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) today introduced the "Peace With Security Act" that calls for an end to US aide to the PA.

"The US is committed to routing out terrorism wherever it exists. That commitment should be reflected by a refusal to send any more American taxpayer dollars to Mr. Arafat and his terrorist groups," said Cantor, chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare.

[WASHINGTON - Associated Press - January 24, 2002]: Saying the Palestinian leader must "demonstrate the leadership to combat terrorism," the White House gave its endorsement Thursday to Israel's confinement of Yasser Arafat to a West Bank compound.

"The president understands the reason that Israel has taken the action that it takes, and it is up to Chairman Arafat to demonstrate the leadership to combat terrorism." spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters at an informal morning briefing. "It is a threat not only to Israel, but to Chairman Arafat," he said. He has been under virtual house arrest for nearly two months. This deprives him of barnstorming the Middle East and Europe in search of support for the Palestinians.

From his office window in Ramallah, Arafat can peer out at Israeli soldiers who are posted just down the street. "The president continues to believe that it is incumbent on Chairman Arafat to do more, take more steps, and show with action that he is committed to eliminating terrorism and combatting it wherever it exists," Fleischer said.

With the Islamic militant group Hamas threatening to unleash "all-out war," Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Arafat Wednesday to urge him to curb attacks on Israel.

The fighting has sidetracked mediation efforts by Anthony Zinni, a retired Marine general who has made two unsuccessful attempts to restore a cease-fire and had been expected to try again. Zinni remains on hold in Washington, and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said there is no change in his situation.

"We haven't seen the sustained and full action that we believe is necessary," Boucher said of Arafat. "We continue to believe he can do more to stop the violence."

Fleischer, meanwhile, affirmed on Wednesday that the United States would remain deeply involved in the Middle East. "The events in the Middle East are unique. They are not like any events anywhere else in the world," he said.

Fleischer said Zinni's mission was derailed when the Palestinians tried to smuggle in weapons, a plot Israeli commandos aborted by seizing the ship in the Red Sea. This, he said, "has immensely complicated the prospects for getting a return to the peace in the Middle East."

JERUSALEM (AP - 24 January) - Islamic militants threatened ``all-out war'' Wednesday to avenge the killing of a Hamas commander in the West Bank, and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority said it can no longer be expected to enforce a truce with Israel.

With tensions and violence rising, the U.S. ambassador to Israel called on Israelis and Palestinians to urge their governments to work for peace.

Palestinian militants and mainstream activists marched together in a funeral procession in Nablus, burying the dead from Israel's raid on a bomb factory a day earlier. Four Hamas activists were killed, including West Bank militant leader Yousef Soragji, 42, mastermind of several suicide bombings.

The Israeli army commander in the West Bank said it was the biggest bomb factory ever uncovered, and the military displayed the range of explosives and timing devices found in the Nablus apartment.

More than 15,000 people marched in the funeral, led by activists from Hamas and the Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked toArafat's Fatah movement.

Hamas pledged an ``all-out war'' against Israel in retaliation, and Palestinian Cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said the Palestinian Authority could not enforce a cease-fire under the circumstances.

``The Israeli guns are being pointed to our heads,'' he told The Associated Press. ``We are not able to implement any of ourcommitments.''

On Tuesday, a Palestinian linked to Arafat's Fatah movement opened fire in downtown Jerusalem, killing two women andwounding 14 other people. Abdel Rahman said the Palestinian Authority opposes attacks on civilians, but charged that Israelwas responsible for the deterioration.

A lull of several weeks in the 16 months of violence ended after last week's killing - widely attributed to Israel - of militia leader Raed Karmi in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. Palestinians have carried out a string of retaliatory attacks against Israeli civilians, bringing on more countermeasures.

On Wednesday, Israeli tanks remained parked about 70 yards from Arafat's West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah, the most visible of the measures Israel has taken.

Also Wednesday, Israeli bulldozers demolished two Palestinian houses on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Israeli officials said theywere built without permits.

In a public appeal, U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer called on Israelis and Palestinians to press their governments to work for peace. ``They need to hear from you that you want peace, that you want reconciliation, that you want reasonable compromise,'' Kurtzer said at Givat Haviva, an Israeli institution that sponsors Jewish-Arab programs.

Kurtzer recalled that his generation stormed American university offices to force change. ``I don't recommend that,'' he said,but added that Israelis and Palestinians should take actions that ``will be persuasive to the two governments involved that thepeople have had enough and they want to move forward.''

The resumption of violence appears to have caused the cancellation of a third trip to the region by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni,who had been expected last week.

In a phone call Wednesday, Arafat asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to send Zinni back to the region. However, StateDepartment spokesman Richard Boucher said there are no such plans. Palestinian officials said it was the first such phone call in 15 days.

In Paris, another effort to restore calm got under way as Israeli Parliament Speaker Avraham Burg met with his Palestiniancounterpart Ahmed Qureia and pledged to travel to Ramallah to address the legislature there at an undetermined date.

Addressing the French parliament, the two raised their clasped hands and earned a standing ovation.

Burg, who is from the moderate Labor Party, charged that Sharon's aim is the ``destruction of the Palestinian Authority andreoccupation of the cities of the West Bank,'' which were handed to the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s.

Sharon has cut off political contacts with Palestinian officials because of the violence, and his government several weeks agotorpedoed an initiative in which Israeli President Moshe Katsav would have addressed the Palestinian legislature.