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Mofaz: Arafat May Be Expelled Soon
(Ha'aretz) - Gideon Alon Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday: "My opinion in the past was that we should deport Arafat....At this moment, it would not be right to do so, but it is very possible that in the very near future, there will be no choice but to do so." Mofaz said Arafat is making every effort to foil the Israeli-Palestinian rapprochement and the reforms that Abu Mazen is trying to effect. Arafat still controls some of the PA security services, he noted. Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, head of Military Intelligence's research division, said new warnings of planned attacks keep pouring in, most of them involving organizations affiliated with Fatah, the faction to which both Arafat and Abbas belong. Kuperwasser noted that Abbas initially refused to condemn Sunday's attack in Gaza, which killed four soldiers. Even after he was pressured into doing so, his condemnation was not reported by any of the Palestinian media and was evidently purely for external consumption, he said. Brigadier General Eli Yaffe, head of the General Staff's Operations Directorate, said that in the 40 days since Abu Mazen's government was established, there has been no change in the level of terrorist activity.