Reform on hold with Arafat under siege

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israeli Army Col. Ilan Paz stood in front of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's battered compound yesterday and casually chatted with soldiers training their assault rifles on what was once a proud symbol of Palestinian self-rule.

Arafat was holed up with his aides on the second floor of one of the few buildings still standing, just 100 yards away, but from the outside it appeared that the sprawling city-block-size complex was deserted. Not a person could be seen; not a single shot was fired by Arafat's elite presidential guard.

Instead of meeting with his newly restructured Cabinet, Arafat was under military siege once again. The Israeli army was surrounding his compound for the second time in five days and the third time since March.

"We don't want to be here at all," said Paz, a 42-year-old career military man, standing amid the bulldozed ruins of the compound's perimeter wall. "I would prefer to be on the outside. Unfortunately, that is not the situation we have right now."