Military

DATE=06/25/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT (LONG)

TITLE=BUSH SPEECH / ISRAELI-PALESTINAN REACT (L)

NUMBER=2-291383

BYLINE=ROSS DUNN

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED

INTRO: Supporters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are rallying behind him, following President Bush's call on Monday for a new Palestinian leadership. Israeli observers, meanwhile, say the address is likely to encourage Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to continue the Israeli military offensive in the Palestinian areas. Ross Dunn reports from Jerusalem.

TEXT: Palestinian Cabinet Minster Saeb Erekat says that Mr. Bush's call for a new Palestinian leadership is unacceptable.

In his address, Mr. Bush urged the Palestinian people to replace Mr. Arafat, who was elected head of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, with a leader "not compromised by terror."

Although he did not mention the Palestinian leader by name, analysts in the Mideast say President Bush's message was clear: Arafat must go.

But Mr. Erekat says that Mr. Arafat was democratically elected and Mr. Bush must respect the right of the Palestinian people to choose their leader without outside interference.

Mr. Bush's appeal for Mr. Arafat's removal comes seven months after Mr. Sharon's cabinet declared the Palestinian leader "irrelevant" and broke off all direct contacts with him.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Danny Naveh says that the president's address represents, in his words, "the end of the Arafat era and the victory of Israel's position."

Israeli commentator Hemi Shalev wrote that "one can only imagine Sharon watching the speech on T-V and the smile on his face, spreading wider and wider until he cries with joy when he hears Bush's demand . for the political heads of Yasser Arafat and his crew on a platter." He adds: "the implicit message of [Mr.] Bush's speech is that he has accepted [Mr.] Sharon's formula that Mr. Arafat is [equal to Osama] bin Laden" and the Palestinian Authority resembles the Taleban."

Another Israeli commentator, columnist Nahum Barnea, expressed doubt that the speech would lead to the rejection of Mr. Arafat by his fellow Palestinians. Writing in the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Mr. Barnea's said: "[Mr.]Bush's call to replace the [Palestinian] leadership, to wit [Mr.] Arafat, will achieve the exact opposite: it will force the Palestinian leadership to rally round the besieged [Mr.] Arafat once again."

/// OPT TO END /// Mr. Barnea said that he suspects the address was not only designed to give more breathing space to Mr. Sharon but also to the U-S President himself.

"The White House," Mr. Barnea wrote, "does not want to get involved in negotiations: it wants an alibi that will justify its decision not to get the president involved in our affairs. The president isn't built for Middle Eastern despair." (Signed)

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