| Three U.S. lawmakers canceled a planned meeting with Chairmain-for-Life Yasser Arafat, saying Israeli officials have convinced them Arafat was behind an attempt to smuggle 50 tons of weapons from Iran. Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Fla., said he and two other members of the House canceled their Thursday meeting with Arafat after an Israeli military intelligence briefing. Deutsch called the shipment "a watershed incident" in Israeli-Palestinian relations and said it also threatened U.S. contacts with Arafat. "This action has, I believe, already begun a re-evaluation in the administration and the State Department of the relationship with the Palestinian Authority and with Yasser Arafat," Deutsch said. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., were also to have attended the meeting with Arafat. Yasser has managed to step in it pretty deep this time. It'll probably be three, maybe even four months before the incident's forgotten. |