Israelis back off Sharon's new threat against Arafat

JERUSALEM - Top Israeli officials on Sunday played down Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's latest threat against Yasser Arafat, saying Israel has no immediate plans to harm or evict the Palestinian leader.

"I don't see the possibility that Arafat will be expelled or assassinated tomorrow morning," Cabinet Minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio.

He added, though, that Sharon's comments should be considered a warning against attacks by Palestinian militants. Israeli officials hold Arafat responsible for bombings and other strikes against Israel.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sharon's comments had thrown Arafat into "a state of panic." That, he said, was good for Israel.

Sharon declared over the weekend that he is no longer bound by a promise to the United States not to harm Arafat.

The comments, which were criticized in Washington, Europe and the Arab world, raised speculation that Arafat might be in Israel's cross hairs. In recent weeks, Israel has killed a founder of the Hamas terrorist group and his successor.

After nightfall Sunday, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a vehicle in the southern West Bank, killing one Israeli border policeman and wounding three others, rescue workers said. In another shooting attack nearby, an Israeli Arab was seriously wounded, rescue workers said.

Sharon accuses Arafat of supporting terrorism. Under U.S. pressure, however, he has refrained from attacking Arafat, instead confining him to a compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah for more than two years.

Arafat greeted 400 Palestinian schoolchildren at his headquarters Sunday. The students chanted anti-Sharon slogans and called for an end to Israel's siege of the Palestinian leader.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Arafat said he is not afraid to die. "Our destiny is to be martyrs in this holy land," Arafat said.

With Arafat's movements limited, there is little the Palestinians can do to protect him from Israel's air force. The Israeli airstrikes that killed the two Hamas leaders in Gaza added to Palestinian concerns for Arafat.

LONDON - Mordechai Vanunu, released after nearly 18 years in prison for revealing information about Israel's nuclear program, endured many years of solitary confinement with the help of the Bible and Wagner's music, a British newspaper reported.

The Israeli had converted from Judaism to Christianity before he was imprisoned.

The Sunday Times, which had published Vanunu's story about Israel's secrets in 1986, reported that the newly freed Israeli listened to opera tapes and CDs sent by well-wishers, including many by Richard Wagner, the newspaper said. There is an informal ban in Israel on public performances of music of the anti-Semitic Wagner, who was Adolf Hitler's favorite composer.

- Information from the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press was used in this report.

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