Rival leaders Abbas and Sharon both in the line of fire
AFP
Date: 01-19-05
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and new Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas are being surrounded with unprecedented security over fears that extremists may try to make them pay the ultimate price for their efforts to secure peace.
Sharon may have won international plaudits for his plan to pull settlers out of the Gaza Strip but his project has stoked up levels of bitterness not seen in Israel since the assassination of the late Yitzhak Rabin, who was shot dead by a right-wing extremist in 1995 for signing the Oslo peace accords.
Meanwhile Abbas, who is trying to bring about an end to the armed Palestinian uprising, is also well aware of the fate of Egypt's president Anwar Sadat, assassinated in 1981 for offering the hand of peace to the Jewish state.
In a recent appearance before parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, the head of Israel's internal Shin Beth security service warned that extremist opponents of Sharon's so-called disengagement were out to kill him.
"There is more than one individual in Israel who has the intention and the capacity to kill Sharon in order to prevent his plan", Avi Dichter told MPs in a closed door meeting, according to one deputy who was present.
Sharon's movements are now limited to "a strict minimum," the same source added.
He is rarely seen at public meetings or addressing open-air gatherings and even journalists who were once able to approach him relatively easily in the cafeteria of the parliament are now forced to keep their distance.
The burly premier is permanently surrounded by an entourage of at least 10 bodyguards, who are armed to the teeth. And when he driven from place to place, four motorbike outriders will close the roads to ensure the safe passage of his own limousine and three other protection vehicles.
The security around Abbas may not be quite as stringent but the sense of fear for his life at the hands of a Palestinian extremist is in sharp contrast to the days of his late predecessor Yasser Arafat who was more concerned about being killed by Israeli forces.
While Arafat did not venture out of his West Bank compound for nearly the last three years of his life, Abbas had to travel the length and breadth of the West Bank and Gaza Strip during his recent succesful election campaign.
Security sources say he is protected by three separate cordons everywhere he travels. The inner core includes his old personal bodyguards who have protected him for years during his time as deputy head of the PLO.
A second layer consists of members of Arafat's old bodyguard unit while a phalanx of police officers makes up the outer ring.
The Palestinian Authority president is usually driven in a convoy of five black bullet-proof Mercedes, surrounded by several jeeps packed with armed security officers.
One security official gave a hint of the atmosphere in the Abbas camp when he revealed that no one had been invited to his house in Gaza where he is currently staying during meetings with leaders of the armed factions.
"Arafat, when he was alive, was never threatened with death by extremists," an official with responsibililty for Abbas's protection told AFP.
"You couldn't have found a single Palestinian who would have wanted to kill him and protecting him was much easier.
"Now it's different. There are threats and Abu Mazen (Abbas) needs to have his security reinforced," he added.
Source
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