JERUSALEM, Sept 9 (AFP) - Israel has renewed its campaign of intimidation against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with further calls to expel him from his West Bank headquarters but it seems no closer to acting on its threats.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom became the second senior minister in days to evoke the possibility of the 75-year-old's banishment, by saying that Israel had never been closer to expelling him.
"Arafat has no place among us and the day when we take him out of here and said him to others has never been closer," Shalom said in a speech to activists from the right-wing Likud party, the main party in the governing coalition.
"We are going to maintain our policy of isolating Arafat at the Muqataa (his West Bank headquarters) as he is a terrorist with whom it is impossible to negotiate," said Shalom, who has made a number of previous calls for Arafat's expulsion.
Arafat has been effectively confined to his West Bank headquarters by the Israeli army since December 2001, having been declared an obstacle to peace by his arch enemy, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Sharon also sparked widespread international condemnation in April when he declared that Arafat was "a marked man."
The Israeli security cabinet agreed in principle on September 11 last year to "remove" Arafat from his headquarters, holding him responsible for the failure to prevent two suicide attacks.
But there has been no attempt to carry out the plan which, despite Shalom's comments, does not appear to be on the cards in the near future.
In a phone-in programme earlier this week, hawkish Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel was still determined to banish Arafat but only "at the opportune moment and in the method that suits us."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the threat "reveals the Israeli government's real intentions, of destroying the peace process.
"We take these threats very seriously. What we have seen from Mofaz and now from Shalom today is a preparing of the ground," he told AFP.
Despite the talk of banishing Arafat, Sharon is well aware that such a move would not only be highly inflammatory at a time when his efforts are being directed towards next year's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip, but would also be fiercely opposed by the United States.
One of Mofaz's chief advisors, reserve General Amos Gilad, sounded a note of caution about the net benefits of casting Arafat out of the Palestinian territories.
"If he is banished, he would become the leader of a government in exile," Gilad said on an army radio.
"Nobody will be able to act against him, he can then supervise the terrorist activity and gather all terrorists under one banner which can obtain the support of all the Arab countries.
"I am not certain that this would be the best thing to do," he added.
"Without wishing to be seen as some kind of American colony, we must take the view of the Americans into account as well as those of the Europeans, the Arab countries with whom we have peace treaties (Jordan and Egypt) as well as the reactions on the Palestinian street."
Arafat himself has vowed that he will never allow himself to be taken alive from his Muqataa headquarters which are heavily guarded by Palestinian security forces.