I’ll take on the militants, vows Arafat

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has insisted he will not shy away from a confrontation with the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups to revive what hope remains for peace in the Middle East.

Speaking from his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Arafat said the Palestinian police had already arrested 17 key militants out of a list of 33 presented to him by American officials, and says he will continue pursuing the rest despite the continuing Israeli air strikes.

Asked whether he would be prepared to face down resistance by the militants and their growing legions of supporters, Arafat smiled and said: ‘‘You are speaking with Yasser Arafat. I know how to do it. I know how to do it.’’

Earlier in the week, Palestinian police faced an angry mob outside the home of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin after he had been placed under house arrest and a Hamas supporter was killed in an exchange of fire.

Arafat was interviewed for an hour in his office in an imposing compound that once served as an Israeli military prison.

It was just yards away from the scene of an Israeli missile strike earlier in the week that was widely interpreted as a message that the Palestinian leader was no longer fully immune.

Dressed in olive fatigues and trademark keffiyeh headdress meticulously arranged to approximate the shape of historic Palestine, Arafat carried his own message largely aimed at America: attached to his lapels were tiny Palestinian and American flags, an olive branch and a pin depicting the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

Arafat said he was used to coming under Israeli attack, citing Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, in which Ariel Sharon then defence minister and now Israel’s prime minister drove Arafat and his fighters to exile in Tunisia.

‘‘Do you think it is the first time he (Sharon) had done it?’’ Arafat said, referring to this week’s rocket attack. ‘‘You have to remember Beirut.’’

The Palestinian leader has been under mounting pressure by the United States and other nations to crush the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements that have been waging a campaign of terror in Israel, especially after Hamas suicide bombings a week ago that killed 26 people in Jerusalem and the coastal city of Haifa.

The attacks, within 12 hours of each other less than a week into the peace mission of retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, badly rattled Israel.

Sharon placed the blame squarely on Arafat, and his message - that by doing little to quash the radical groups up to now, Arafat bore the blame for their actions - resonated widely in Israel and appears to have found support in the Bush administration as well.