The Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, branded a traitor by the Islamic extremist group Hamas over his latest peace deal with Israel, confirmed yesterday he had agreed to an Israeli request for a few days' postponement in implementing the accord, reports David Horovitz.
The deal, under which the Palestinians will gain control of further areas of the occupied West Bank in exchange for taking intensified action against Hamas and other militants, was supposed to have come into effect overnight. Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, telephoned Mr Arafat yesterday to ask for the postponement, explaining that his cabinet is scheduled to vote on the deal today and a vote in the full Knesset is only due next week.
Palestinian officials are privately well satisfied with the terms they negotiated at the Wye summit last month, and especially an arrangement under which President Clinton is scheduled to visit Palestinian-controlled areas to oversee the public annulment of anti-Israeli clauses in the PLO's guiding covenant.
In response to the arrests of several hundred Hamas activists in recent days, and the placing of the Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, under house arrest in Gaza, the Hamas "military wing" issued a statement charging that Mr Arafat had "reached the point of treason". And Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hizbullah movement in Lebanon called on Muslims to murder Mr Arafat.
According to a leaked Israeli Foreign Ministry cable, Mr Clinton has told a close aide he is worried that Mr Arafat could be assassinated. But the Palestinian leader was unconcerned yesterday.
Further angering some Palestinians is the fact that Mr Netanyahu has recently approved construction work at disputed sites.