Gingrich tells Sarasota audience Arafat, Hussein must go

SARASOTA, FLORIDA - Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the United States should help Israel remove Yasser Arafat from power and take whatever steps necessary including military action to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. <br> <br> Gingrich told the Tiger Bay Club&#39;s annual banquet Wednesday that the U.S. military should not be involved in banishing Arafat from the West Bank and Israel, but when he&#39;s gone the United States should seek a new Palestinian leader ``who&#39;s willing to commit to peace.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> ``We&#39;ve got to decide if we are really against terrorism, in which case I think Yasser Arafat has to be held accountable,&#39;&#39; Gingrich said, according the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. <br> <br> ``He has done nothing to stop it (terrorism). He has done everything to encourage it. I think, frankly, that he should be banished,&#39;&#39; said Gingrich, a Georgia Republican who was the House speaker from 1995 to 1999. <br> <br> He said the United States should not appease Arab dictators who are running illegitimate, oppressive governments that in some cases are funding terrorists and the families of suicide bombers. Iraq pays such families $25,000 each. <br> <br> Gingrich, who is now the chief executive of an Atlanta communications and consulting firm, said the United States should ``take whatever military steps are necessary,&#39;&#39; with or without allies, to eliminate Hussein&#39;s regime.