Sharon sends Peres to shake Arafat's hand

By Megan Goldin

JERUSALEM (Reuters): Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won't shake Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's hand, but he has no qualms about sending his son and foreign minister to do the deed.

The Israeli leader, branded a warmonger by the Arab world, calls Arafat "a pathological liar and a murderer".

But like it or not, the former general who came to power four months ago finds himself having to send his foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and his own son Omri to the Palestinian leader because Arafat is the only game in town.

Israeli analysts believe Sharon is trying to coax Arafat into reining in Palestinian militants. But if that doesn't work, they say, he aims to show the world that he did his best to avoid conflict.

"He is sincerely trying to pressure Arafat from every and any direction to step up his efforts to clamp down the violence," said Israeli analyst Mark Heller from Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies.

But there is an ominous alternative strategy.

"The second objective is to try and make sure that the rest of the region and rest of the world perceives that he has really exhausted every possibility before he decides, if he does in the end, to go for a large-scale military operation."

The meetings also allow Arafat to air grievances about Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes, blockades of Palestinian areas and attacks by Jewish settlers.

Palestinian analyst Ghassan al-Khatib said the Peres-Arafat talks in Cairo on Sunday and Omri Sharon's meeting last week could prevent "some further aggravation in the level of violence".

But Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio: "There was nothing new at the meeting (and)...no agreement whatsoever."

On the advice of top security officials, Sharon sent his son last Thursday armed with a spiral notebook in which the Israeli leader had scrawled a message to Arafat to "stop the violence, stop the terror, stop the incitement".

Dore Gold, an adviser to Sharon, said it was crucial for Israel to maintain contacts with Arafat despite criticism from right-wing cabinet ministers who say the meetings are tantamount to giving Arafat a stamp of approval.

"It is imperative that lines of communication remain open," Gold told Reuters.

Israel has yet to say what it will do if Arafat fails to satisfy its demands, but the British intelligence journal Jane's Foreign Report gave an inkling of what could happen should there be another deadly bombing against Israelis.

In the last big attack, outside a Tel Aviv disco last month, a suicide bomber killed 21 people, most of them teenagers.

According to the Jane's report, Israel has a plan to bring down Arafat's Palestinian Authority and either kill him and his close circle or send them into exile while disarming Arafat's 40,000-strong security forces.

Israeli officials deny contemplating the idea but acknowledge that military strategists have drawn up all sorts of contingency plans.

Israel and the Palestinians have blamed each other for the violence since the Palestinian revolt began in which least 480 Palestinians, 126 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed, more than 33 of them since the ceasefire was supposed to have taken effect more than a month ago.

Under fire from right-wingers in Sharon's broad-based coalition government, Peres defended his meeting with Arafat, telling Israel's Army Radio: "We can't play a game of chess with ourselves."

Peres, who also met Arafat in Lisbon last month, said there was little point in allowing military commanders to meet Palestinian counterparts if the Palestinian commander-in-chief was ignored.

"He who gives the orders is Arafat. If we want to stop the shooting, why not speak to he who gives the orders and not those that receive them?" Peres asked.