ISRAEL

Independent: Israel criticised at United Nations for threat to Arafat

Israel came under concerted criticism in the United Nations Security Council and in several capitals around the world yesterday for threatening to remove Yasser Arafat from the Middle East peace process, a policy that a cabinet member suggested could extend to killing him.

The council was considering whether to vote on a resolution drafted by Arab states demanding Israeli restraint with regard to the Palestinian leader. Hopes for its quick adoption were overshadowed by the threat of a United States veto. Washington has historically resisted resolutions that are critical of Israel

John Negroponte, the US ambassador, said it had told Israel that it would not support the "elimination of Mr Arafat" or his forced exile. But he added that he would not support a resolution that failed to condemn the "explicit threat to the Middle East peace process posed by Hamas and other such terror groups

In a report to the council, Terje Roed-Larsen, the United Nations envoy to the Middle East, said the peace process and the road-map brokered by President George Bush had stalled. "The recent cycle of terror attacks and extrajudicial killings has broken the Palestinian ceasefire and brought the process to a standstill," he warned.

Wieso ist die USA in der Arabischen Welt bloss so verhasst?