Netanyahu lumps Arafat with bin Laden
He 'invented the murder of diplomats,' Israeli says
By Ann Imse, News Staff Writer
January 17, 2002
Former -- and possibly future -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Denver Wednesday and firmly equated Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with Osama bin Laden.
Speaking to a crowd of 2,800 at the Buell Theater and to reporters in the governor's office, he also denied Palestinian claims that Israel is a terrorist state.
Netanyahu said terrorists' vicious tactics of attacking innocent civilians reveal their true, dictatorial natures. "People who blow up babies do not establish human rights," he said.
In contrast, he insisted that Israel has never targeted civilians, and its killing of innocent Palestinians has been accidental.
Netanyahu, a former Israeli commando, was prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999. He is considered a front-runner in the next election, enjoying support from the hard-line Likud party, currently headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. His hyperbole alarms more moderate Israelis.
At a time when civilian casualties in the Israeli fight against terrorism are causing concern among some Americans and Israelis, Netanyahu brooks no debate when it comes to the moral rectitude of Israeli tactics.
Netanyahu paints the conflict in black and white.
Netanyahu said Arafat "invented the murder of diplomats, the bombing of supermarkets."
Netanyahu said his first goal as prime minister would be the ouster of Arafat -- just as the United States ousted the Taliban from Afghanistan.
Arafat is "not interested in having peace with Israel. He's interested in having a state instead of Israel," he said.
Netanyahu said he believes Israelis can find a negotiating partner who "doesn't seek your destruction."
"The U.S. said, 'Surrender terrorism or surrender power' to the Taliban, and Israel should say the same to Arafat," he said.
About 30 protesters outside the theater held a banner saying, "Bulldozing people's homes is terrorism," and briefly slowed the crowd. Most ignored them, but one man in a yarmulke snarled, "Nazis," as he passed.
Inside, Netanyahu told a questioner that Israel does not respond to terrorism with terrorism. "We could wipe out the entire Palestinian population. We don't use an ounce of our power," he said.