JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to present President Bush with a 100-page report linking Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to terror attacks against Israel, Sharon's office said Saturday.
Sharon, who was preparing to leave Sunday for Washington, has blamed Arafat for Palestinian violence during more than 19 months of conflict and has repeatedly tried to enlist U.S. support for his claim that Arafat is not a partner for peace talks. The Bush administration has refused to go that far, though it has said that Arafat is not doing enough to stop terrorism.
The report, which was to be made public Sunday, includes copies of some of tens of thousands of documents that Israeli troops confiscated in Palestinian areas during last month's large-scale military operation, said Sharon's foreign policy adviser, Danny Ayalon.
Many of the documents outline payments to Palestinian militants who oversaw attacks in Israel and are signed by Arafat, Ayalon said.
"Arafat approved every financing of a suicide bomber and organizations involved in attacks," Ayalon said.
One document shows funding earmarked for militants in the budget of Arafat's Fatah party, said Donna Raviv, an assistant to Cabinet Minister Danny Naveh, who has compiled the report.
The Palestinians have said that the funds used were for political and social welfare activities and have questioned the authenticity of documents Israel has presented before.
"The extent of (Arafat's) involvement superseded our own estimation as we moved into the (Palestinian) areas," Ayalon said. "There we found some documents linking him directly to the attacks and to the infrastructure of terror."
Israel says that during the West Bank operation it confiscated hundreds of illegal weapons, rockets, grenades and explosives belts to be used by suicide bombers.
In another report posted on a government Web site, Israel alleges that the Palestinian Authority has been directly involved in inciting children to violence and educating them to hate Israel.
In one instance, three pictures of a Palestinian boy named Kamal Said are shown with captions written by Israel; one with him throwing rocks at Israeli police in Jerusalem, a second of him being arrested, and a third being hugged by Arafat.
The site also quotes reported excerpts from Palestinian text books that encourage children to fight Israeli troops and become suicide bombers with such sayings as, "I will take my soul into my hands and hurl it into the abyss of death."
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