Still Fighting, Still Confident.(Yasir Arafat )(Brief Article)(Interview)

NEWSWEEK's Dan Ephron interviewed Yasir Arafat last week about his "irrelevance" and the way forward with Israel. Excerpts:

EPHRON: The Israelis have sealed you off in this compound. How has that affected your ability to carry out diplomacy?

ARAFAT: You can see for yourself that their tanks are 70 meters from here. During Christmas... they kept the siege up around Bethlehem. Can this be accepted by the Christians all over the world? How can this be tolerated by the international community? Especially countries that aid Israel financially?

Some people compare this encirclement to 20 years ago, when Ariel Sharon's forces surrounded Beirut. They say maybe nothing has changed in all this time.

But don't forget--I'm here in my land. You remember when I left Beirut, they asked me in the harbor, the journalists, "Where are you going, Arafat?" I told them I am going to Palestine. Here I am in Palestine.

Sharon says you're not stopping the violence.

From the beginning we condemned it. And not only that--we took measures. We declared a state of emergency. We closed many of their [Hamas and Islamic Jihad] institutions. We arrested some of their leaders because there is a decision which has been taken in the Palestinian leadership and the cabinet and the executive committee of the PLO. This has to be respected by everyone.