Drop plan to kill Arafat!

The words spoken by a distinguished American statesman and lawyer more than two centuries ago still reverberate and apply even to this date to freedom fighters and people who long for an independent and sovereign nation, like the Palestinians.

"Give me liberty or give me death," so said Patrick Henry at the time of the American revolution, urging that Virginia militia be armed for defense of the colony against England's tyrannical rule.

For decades the Palestinian people have launched armed struggles for their inalienable rights for independence from their archenemy and oppressor, the Israeli government, but to no avail because of Israel's military might and backing from Western powers, particularly the United States.

Vanquished unjustly and worsened by the many peace plans and proposals that have never materialized their dreams for independence, the Palestinians were forced to launch guerrilla attacks against the Israelis that often caused the loss of innocent lives on both sides.

Frustrated by the string of suicide bomb attacks launched by Palestinian militants, the Israeli government is contemplating to remove and even assassinate the de facto Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, whom it claims to be responsible for fanning the flames of violence in the Middle East and disrupting the international peace proposal known as the "road map" to peace in the war-torn region. Arafat has denied the allegation.

While we condemn both the Palestinian militants' suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians and the Israeli military retaliation against Palestinian people, we surely condemn the Jewish state's plan to liquidate Arafat, who has been confined by Israel for the past 20 months in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The world community, including Indonesia, has reacted angrily to the plan and even Israel's main backer, the United States, has warned against any such move.

Arafat is the undisputed leader and freedom fighter of the Palestinians just as George Washington and Patrick Henry were to the Americans so that -- should the insane plan to kill Arafat be carried out -- Israel, quoting the words of Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, would have to face the responsibilities in front of the world as a state of gangsters and not as a real constitutional state.

If that happens, doubtless, millions of innocent Israeli people will take the brunt of rage not only from the Arab and Muslim world but also from the peace-loving and democratic international community. This means that the Israeli people are under an obligation to force their government to completely abandon the horrendous plan if they want to live peacefully and friendly with peoples of the world.

It is hard to imagine what chaos will happen in the already troubled Middle East if Israel really carries out the plan and hence it is also the duty of the United Nations to do its utmost to pressure Israel into giving up the plan.

All said, we believe that the best thing the Jewish state could do now is to go back to the negotiating table and let the Palestinian people determine what and who is good for them and acknowledge the fact that Arafat, up to now, is still their best choice for leading them to planned statehood in 2005.