It seems that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has put the issue of liquidating Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on top of his to-do list and what have been keeping him from executing his plan were the numerous "red lights" standing in his way.

Since he took the office as prime minister on February 2001, Sharon has hinted about harming Arafat many times, whether by arresting him, expelling him out of the Palestinian territories or even physically liquidating him.

Until now, Sharon's hunt for Arafat went through a series of phases which started with making secret contacts with the Palestinian leader in an attempt to convince him to make territorial concessions.

After all the attempts failed, Sharon worked on alienating Arafat from the political arena by announcing that he is "irrelevant", and carried out a large-scale military operation in Arafat's headquarters.

Arafat has been besieged in his headquarters since March 2002.

Furthermore, Sharon decided to boycott any international political leaders and officials who made contact with Arafat.

Although the Israeli prime minister authorized numerous attacks against Arafat's headquarters, he had always asserted that those operations did not target Arafat directly and he made a pledge to US President George W. Bush not to harm Arafat.

But on Friday, Sharon announced publicly that he was no longer committed to his pledge made to Bush, asserting that Arafat would no longer be immune from his assassination policy.

By making this announcement, Sharon seemed to be closer than ever from his target.

According to observers, Sharon always turns to assassinating Palestinian leaders each time he goes through a crisis in an attempt to gain more support from his radical right-wing party, the Likud.

Sharon intends to carry out his plans and disregards their consequences as long as they will work on enhancing his status and overshadowing his political failures, they added.

"Sharon is facing a series of crises, so he sees escalating his military measures against Palestinians as a way out," Palestinian Analyst Nazir Majali said.

In Majali's opinion, some major problems faced by Sharon are the retreat of support in Israeli cabinet and the Likud, as well as the corruption and fraud charges against him.

In a bid to avert international attention, Sharon ordered the assassination operations which targeted the Islamic resistance movement Hamas's spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin and new leader AbdulAziz Rantisi, majali said.

Recent polls showed that Sharon's popularity among the Israelis has risen from 33 percent before the assassinations to 39 percent, a positive indication which would probably encourage Sharon to target more Palestinian leaders.

Meanwhile, Sharon also formulated a unilateral disengagement plan from the Palestinians to impose his own terms on crucial issues such as boundaries, security and refugees' return.

The disengagement plan has been internationally promoted without the Palestinians' involvement under the pretext that there was "no Palestinian partner."

The US administration, who had pressed on the Palestinians to create the post of Palestinian prime minister to sideline Arafat and resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, has approved Sharon's unilateral plan.

However, some observers said that Sharon would avoid taking any direct step against Arafat.

If Arafat is physically targeted, it will be hard for Sharon to find another pretext under which he could get international support for implementing his unilateral disengagement plan, particularly from the United States, they explained.

Others, nevertheless, said Sharon might target Arafat, considering that Sharon has always been indifferent to the repercussions of his acts and has always put his personal gains ahead.

"Sharon's calculations have always been personal rather than political, because he is deep plunged in his corruption cases, he could even attempt to make a coup in Israel," Majali said.

Majali also quoted a prominent Israeli academic, who stated recently that Israelis would be regretting and weeping for generations because of Sharon's deeds.

This time, Sharon's threat against Arafat was taken more seriously than ever due to US administration's total support for Sharon.

Sharon has been given a green light to carry out his plans against the Palestinians, Palestinian sources close to Arafat said.

"Sharon is aware that the US administration is more vulnerable because of the upcoming presidential elections, so he would take as much advantage of this situation as possible," the sources added.

Arafat, on the other hand, seemed apathetic to Sharon's threats when he told crowds gathered in front of his headquarters on Saturday that he had always wanted to become a "martyr" and die for the Palestinian cause.

For now, fears about Arafat being targeted are constantly mounting among Palestinians.

What will be the impact and aftermath of Arafat's' assassination and who will be the most emblematic of all Palestinian leaders, they wonder.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2004)