Arafat to Be Expelled If Likud Party Wins Elections: Israeli FM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 09, 2003

Arafat to Be Expelled If Likud Party Wins Elections: Israeli FM

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Israeli Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday night that a Likud-led new government would expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, should the Likud Party wins the oncoming elections scheduled on Jan. 28.

"If you want to continue with Arafat, vote for Labor. ... If youwant to get rid of Arafat, vote for Likud, because that is what a Likud government will do," Netanyahu was quoted by Israel Radio as saying.

Expelling Arafat from the region is one of the basic policies claimed by the hawkish minister, who had served as Israel's prime minister during 1996-1999 and reached the Wye River Memorandum withArafat in 1998.

The latest public opinion poll, conducted Wednesday by the mainstream Ha'aretz Daily, showed that the Labor Party would get 24parliamentary seats during the oncoming elections, shortening previous difference with the Likud Party led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The Likud, according to the poll, would get 27 parliamentary seats, down at least 8 seats from a previous poll, mainly due to the party's troubled bribery scandals, in which Sharon was alleged to receive 1.5 million US dollars from a South African businessman in November 2002.

Amram Mitzna, chairman of the Labor Party, said Wednesday morning that Arafat has been irrelevant both to Israel and to the Palestinians, but that Israel should negotiate with whatever leadership the Palestinian people select.

Mitzna will leave for London on Thursday morning for a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the party's peace initiative, which is focus on a unilateral withdrawal from most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and a political negotiation with the Palestinians.

The rising politician will also meet with leaders of Jewish communities, in an attempt to get more overseas support for him andhis Labor Party ahead of the general elections.

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