A rchive Date
[ 17-02-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/worthington.html
Arafat's increasingly irrelevant
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun
February 17, 2002
It's hard to imagine anyone who watched Mike Wallace's interview with Yasser Arafat on 60 Minutes last Sunday not coming to the conclusion that Arafat is finished, a spent force who no longer has much control.
To me, Arafat is a terrorist, despite chameleon-like colouration and a shared Nobel Peace Prize. In the 60 Minutes interview he invoked something resembling pity. Old, frail, quivering, even sickly, he was unable to coherently answer the most basic of Wallace's questions. Repeatedly, he resorted to saying "Ask the Israelis" when touchy issues came up, like the shipload of arms from Iran that the Israelis intercepted.
More significantly, Arafat exuded fear. Wistfully, he seemed to anticipate his death, hopefully in Palestine, buried next to his mother. This "fear" may account for The Jerusalem Post report that Arafat drew his pistol on his security chief during a discussion.
Whatever, a new phase seems to be emerging in Arab-Israeli relations - a phase that may exclude Arafat. Israelis, under the no-nonsense (one might even say bellicose) Ariel Sharon, no longer want to deal with Arafat and have him under something resembling house arrest in Ramallah. Arafat denies he's being restricted, but the ring of Israel tanks around his abode is argument to the contrary.
George Bush is more circumspect than Sharon. Barely. But he also seems to have given up on Arafat as an instrument for peace. When Bill Clinton was president, Arafat visited the White House more than any other foreign leader, but Bush has ended that dance of folly. Bush no longer talks of Palestine some day being accepted as a state.
Americans finally seem to realize, as Clinton never did, that Arafat never sought peace, but land. Otherwise he'd never have rejected control over 95% of the West Bank, which once was offered.
Sept. 11 probably is what undid Arafat. Maybe for the first time he realized the cost of terrorism against America. Sept. 11 was more sobering for him than for some Islamic leaders. Certainly, he seemed to realize the consequences more than the foolish Taliban leader, Mad Mullah Omar, did. Arafat seemed aware that the world changed on Sept. 11; American patience was replaced by anger.
Arafat's condolences for the victims of the World Trade Center and his charade of giving blood rang hollow. To some, his commiserations rang false and were more insulting that if he'd spewed abuse and defiance.
Who's kidding whom? Arafat now fears what suicidal al-Qaida hijackers have unleashed in America.
IGNORED BY HAMAS
Initially, Arafat sought to dissuade Palestinian terrorists from blowing up Israelis as well as themselves - and was ignored. Hamas clearly dismisses him, as does Islamic Jihad. Arafat pretends to be detached from terrorism while quietly encouraging terrorists.
Sharon now says he regrets not killing Arafat when Israel almost captured Beirut in 1982, before Israel bent to world pressure and withdrew from Lebanon. A mistake. If you're going to invade, don't stop before you've won - a lesson South Africa failed to learn when it invaded Angola in the mid-1970s and then withdrew without capturing Luanda. It left a homicidal Marxist tyranny in power.
In his New York Times column, Thomas Friedman has called Arafat "Dead Man Walking," arguing he no longer has power or respect. So far, no element wants to be responsible for eliminating him, or administering the coup de grace.
Arafat has blown three chances for peace: first by rejecting Bill Clinton's pressuring of Israel to agree to a Palestinian state; second by failing to curb Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorism; third, by seeking to import arms from Iran, which Israel intercepted. That was the last straw for Sharon.
Other than the possibility of Palestinians themselves ousting Arafat in favour of a more militant leader, what is likely?
JORDANIANS TRUSTWORTHY
Bluntly, there is no hope for peace with Arafat in charge, even with titular authority without real power. Some think if the West Bank were ceded to Jordan, it might be a solution, since Palestinians comprise the bulk of Jordan's population. Jordan is the most sensible Arab state, and its Hashemite King Abdullah can be trusted, as his father and great-grandfather could be trusted.
Palestine today seems one of those rare cases where better the devil you don't know than the one you do - like Saddam Hussein in Iraq. No one can predict what would happen if either Saddam or Arafat were to vanish, but it can be predicted that nothing positive is likely to occur so long as both stay in power, albeit diminishing power.
Arafat wasn't mentioned in President Bush's "Axis of Evil" warning to rogue regimes and states that give sanctuary to terrorists, but no one doubts Palestinian terrorist groups are on the hit list.
A successor to Arafat, no matter how radical he may seem at first, changes the dynamics of the Middle East. It opens possibilities of a deal that all sides can live with.
Arafat is damaged goods and a hindrance to peace. The sooner he joins his mother, the better.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com.
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