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"The Palestinian Authority in an urgent meeting headed by Arafat has taken a decision that Palestinian security forces will immediately close down all Hamas and Islamic Jihad institutions, including education, health and political offices," an official statement said. So if this is really important, then why wasn't it included in the maximum effort Arafat claimed he was making last week? And if it isn't, why is he bothering now? Finally, why is it that this attack was made by a group associated with Arafat's own Fatah movement? Arafat says that he thinks Sharon is gunning for him personally. He may well be right, too, but if so I don't think it's because of any long-standing enmity. It's because it is becoming obvious that Arafat is not an asset in the search for a solution. Arafat has only one path: accept that there must be a Palestinian civil war, fight and win it, establish strong control over the Palestinian people afterwards, really negotiate in good faith, and then enforce the terms of any resulting agreement on his own people. (discuss) Update: Arafat no longer has any maneuvering room at all. He's now going to have to do something uncharacteristic: he's actually going to have to make a hard decision and live with the consequences of doing so. |
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