JERUSALEM, Aug 25: The Palestinians have turned to the United States and Europe for help in hopes of easing tough Israeli sanctions and preventing possible military operations by the Jewish state.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat sent a letter to US envoy Dennis Ross, European Union representative Miguel Moratinos and other leaders Sunday complaining about Israel's actions. Among his complaints: a blockade of the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the demolition of Palestinian houses and alleged plans to send hit teams into Palestinian-ruled areas.We urged them to interfere directly with the Israeli government to put an end to such measures, Erekat said.Despite the latest tensions, Palestinian and Israeli officials were planning to hold a security meeting Sunday night at an undisclosed location, army radio said. CIA officials were to attend the meeting under an agreement reached earlier this month during a peace mission by Ross. No details on the meeting were immediately released.Arafat said Saturday that Israel had decided to create a paratrooper unit and special forces to work in our areas and work against the Palestinian authority and Palestinian officials.Neither he nor Erekat gave details about the alleged plans. Israel has denied the existence of such special units.After a double suicide bombing killed 16 people in Jerusalem on July 30, Israel demanded that Arafat crack down on militants. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing.Senior officials said that if Arafat failed to do so, israeli troops might go into the Palestinian autonomy areas to make arrests, a move sure to inflame the volatile situation further.On Sunday, Davi-bar-Illan, a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called baseless the claims that Israel planned to send troops into autonomous Palestinian areas.``I consider this nothing but disinformation, Bar-Illan said. There is no particular plan at this point, and certainly nothing to warrant this kind of warning.He added, however, that Israel reserves the right to apprehend terrorists in areas controlled by regimes which do not act against terrorism.Israel imposed a blanket closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the bombing. The action barred all Palestinians, including 100,000 laborers, from entering Israel.Meanwhile, former U S Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has called for the recognition of the right of Palestinians to a state of their own under security safeguards for Israel. He urged Secretary of State Madelaine Albright, who will soon be going to West Asia to revive the peace process, to go ahead on the basis of this view. Under the Kissinger proposal, the future of Jerusalem will still be unsettled. Kissinger, in an article in The Washington Post, assumes the Oslo Process is at a stalemate and leaves the Palestinian state and other issues ambiguous. Arafat in hit-list The Palestinian Authority believes Israel has targeted Yasser Arafat and two other prominent Palestinians for assassination, according to an official. Khassam-al-Shaka, mayor of the autonomous West Bank city of Nablus told a meeting of supporters yesterday that the Palestinians have a copy of the hit list, which also includes Arafat's deputy Mahmoud Abbas and Intissar-al-Wazir, a minister.
