| Israel has dismissed Chairman-for-Life Yasser Arafat's arrest of Ahmed Saadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said it was another faked arrest in Arafat's "empire of lies". Israel denies Arafat has made good on promises to crack down on radicals when he pledged a ceasefire last month that led to several weeks of relative calm. The Damascus-based PFLP, a secular left-wing faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, warned the arrest would sink the Palestinian Authority into "complete political confrontation with all nationalist and Islamic Palestinian forces, without exception, and with the Palestinian people in its entirety". Abdel Rahim Mallouh said a senior Palestinian Authority official had told the PFLP its chief was being invited to a political meeting. Awwww. We can't believe that! Arafat? Lie to somebody? You gotta be kiddin'! That'd never happen - not Mister Good Faith! (Actually, this little Parcheesi game is getting boring.) |