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EXPLOSIVE ARAFAT PULLS GUN ON AIDE

February 13, 2002 -- JERUSALEM - Yasser Arafat and his West Bank security chief got into such an angry argument yesterday about the Palestinian uprising that the PLO chairman drew his pistol, sources said.

In a scene out of a Wild West movie, bodyguards of both men also pulled out firearms before security chief Jibril Rajoub was dragged out of Arafat’s headquarters, the Palestinian sources said.

The incident reflected the intense anxiety in Ramallah, where Arafat has been confined by Israeli tanks for more than two months under orders from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Sources said the confrontation began when Rajoub - who has described himself as Arafat’s successor - urged Arafat to crack down on terrorism in order to win back some respect from the Bush administration.

The argument soon turned to shouts as Arafat accused Rajoub of insubordination.

Arafat accused Rajoub of letting a Palestinian mob free 60 suspected terrorists from a Hebron jail Monday and of spreading leaflets in the West Bank calling for the dismantling of the "Martyrs Brigade of Al-Aqsa," a terrorist group linked to Arafat’s paramilitary that has claimed responsibility for suicide attacks on Israelis.

At one point Arafat shouted at Rajoub: "Israeli spy! CIA agent!"

Israeli state radio said Arafat also slapped Rajoub’s face before the security chief was pulled from the room by Arafat’s bodyguards.

In other developments:

* Israel’s military occupied two Palestinian towns and a refugee camp in Gaza early today, and was preparing to take Palestinian-controlled land in the West Bank.

Troops were ordered into areas where Palestinians fired Qassam rockets on Israeli settlements. The rockets missed their targets when they were fired from Gaza on Sunday and from the West Bank yesterday.

* The chief of the Shin Bet security agency told Israeli legislators yesterday his men were on alert because of nine planned terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings.

Avi Dichter told a Knesset committee that two would-be suicide bombers who accidentally killed themselves Friday were about to carry out an attack with a bomb twice as explosive as the one used in last June’s Tel Aviv disco attack, which killed more than 20 people.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002