PLO ON ALERT

Yasser Arafat put the Palestinian Authority on alert after the assassination, taking every precaution to try to avoid derailing the peace process, Scott MacLeod reports. One PLO source told MacLeod: "You have a lot of crazy people on both sides." MacLeod says that Arafat, who shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Shimon Peres, learned of the shooting while returning to a guest house in his bullet-proof Mercedes after hosting a dinner at the Palestine Hotel on the Gaza Strip. Moments later, he was informed that Rabin was dead. Going immediately to his office, he called in his cabinet and gave an emotional statement to reporters. "Describing Rabin as 'a brave partner in seeking peace', Arafat said 'I am very sad and very shocked for this awful and terrible crime against one of the brave leaders of Israel and [one of] the peacemakers. I hope that they would have the ability -- all of us, the Israelis and the Palestinians -- have the ability to overcome this tragedy against the peace process and against the whole situation in the Middle East.' Arafat concluded his remarks and began to walk away, but then called back to reporters, 'I am offering my condolences to his wife, to his family, to the Israeli government, to the Israeli people.' After another pause, he added, 'It is not only my condolences. It is the condolences of all the Palestinian people.' His eyes downward, as if in dejection, Arafat was led away by his security men."