State Dept. Report Investigating Arafat's Links to Terror Is at Odds With Israeli Claims
A new State Department report has found "no conclusive evidence" that Yasir Arafat or other senior Palestinian leaders planned or approved specific terrorist attacks on Israel in the six months that ended in December, an assertion sharply at odds with recent Israeli claims.

But the report, sent to Congress last week, said "the weight of evidence" suggests that Palestinian leaders knew their subordinates were involved in violence and "did little to rein them in" or punish them. It also noted that senior Palestinian officials were involved in an unsuccessful effort to smuggle sophisticated weapons into the West Bank and Gaza that "could have dramatically escalated the level of Palestinian violence."

As part of a campaign to discredit Mr. Arafat and replace him in any future peace negotiations, the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel has produced reams of documents, many seized in recent raids in Palestinian areas, which it says prove that Mr. Arafat himself was responsible for terrorist attacks and the attempted weapons smuggling.

The Bush administration has not gone that far, but a senior administration official insisted this evening that Israeli information "confirms the view we've taken in this report that there are definitely elements of the Palestinian Authority that are involved in and complicit in violence." The official repeated the Bush administration's longstanding insistence that it held Mr. Arafat "ultimately responsible for the deeds of his organization, but that's different than holding him personally responsible."

In fact, the administration has walked a delicate line, at once sharply criticizing Mr. Arafat and calling on him to rein in violence and restructure Palestinian institutions, while contending that he cannot be replaced as the chief Palestinian leader except by the Palestinians themselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/international/middleeast/17DIPL.html