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Stardate
20020125.1314 (On Screen): Our good friends in the Palestinian Authority are afraid that the US is about to make a big mistake. Cutting off contact with the Palestinian Authority and refusing to talk to Arafat is the wrong approach for the US.
"What is needed is to isolate Sharon," according to Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a close advisor to Arafat. Needed by whom? That is surely what the Palestinians need, but why in hell does he think that it's what the US needs? Does he really think that the US is suddenly going to completely switch sides in this and start to bully Israel?
The political reality is that the September bombing of the US is conceptually the same as the continued attacks being made on Israeli civilians in the minds of American voters, and that neither of those is related to what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinians. As far as the majority of Americans are concerned, the rejection of the Barak proposal and the September attack on the US made the Palestinians the bad guys in their struggle.
If the Palestinian Authority wants to prevent the US from cutting off contact, then it better stop talking and start acting. There is exactly one way for them to prevent that from happening, and they know exactly what it is.
What is really needed is for the Palestinian Authority to prove that it is willing to negotiate in good faith and that it is capable of delivering peace if it agrees to do so.
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