Stardate 20020222.0616

(On Screen): Kofi Annan calls for "new thinking" in the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. He's afraid the situation is about to explode, which I think is probably a reasonable concern.

He wants imaginative new ideas to try to break the deadlock. He sure doesn't seem to have any of his own, nor does he point to any others. The purported offer by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah is useless, for instance. The US has spent 25 years trying to mediate and now has given up.

The problem now is that the positions on all sides have solidified into an unresolvable stalemate. There needs to be a change in the situation so fundamental that every participant will realize that all their previous positions are obsolete and must be completely reevaluated.

So here's my imaginative new idea: it's time for Arafat to be removed from the game. Without Arafat as the representative of the Palestinians, all the policies everyone has become obsolete. It would cause precisely the kind of new thinking that Annan says is required.

The secretary-general said third party intervention was needed because "the breakdown of trust" between Israelis and Palestinians "is so total that neither side will believe the other when it comes to the implementation of agreements."

That is one of the problems which might be solvable without Arafat. Part of why there is no trust is that Arafat has proved again and again that his word is worthless. A new leader for the Palestinians might well have more credibility. (It would be hard for him to have less.)

Changing the Israeli leadership won't help. Over the course of the last ten years Israel has had many Prime Ministers, many administrations. Neither Barak, nor Peres, nor Netanyahu, nor Sharon has been able to change the situation despite each of them trying radically different approaches. But they were all dealing with Arafat. So maybe it's time for him to go.