Security forces have arrested four Arabs from the Gaza Strip and charged them with a plot to assassinate Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon at his farm in the Negev. The four reportedly confessed they were recruited for the task by the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Sharon was apparently chosen because he is in charge of the Ministerial Settlement Committee and is the leading advocate in the Cabinet of increasing Jewish settlements in the West Bank. A reserve general, he is also a war hero, especially of the Yom Kippur War where he led the Israeli forces across the Suez Canal into Egypt.
The terrorists had apparently been planning the attack for a year. They had people working in packing houses near the Sharon farm where they could observe his habits.
According to reports, the four men arrested had planned to get jobs as farmhands on Sharon’s form. The terrorists had earlier, stockpiled arms near one of the fruit-pocking plants. They reportedly planned to attack the minister with explosives and firearms while he was in his house, thus circumventing his bodyguard and the electronic warning devices which surround the farm.
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