asir Arafat always stalls until the 11th hour before a fateful decision, often going on to make the wrong one. He is playing that game again today, withholding his approval from the government proposed by the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Arafat is holding shut the doors to any chance of reviving the search for peace in order to cling to what is left of his power. The greatest service Mr. Arafat could render his people, and his legacy, is to get out of the way.

It is not only the Israelis and Americans who want this; the Europeans, Egypt and Jordan, and many Palestinians, have urged him to give the new cabinet the nod and thus clear the way for the United States to make another effort at an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. The Bush administration has said that only if the Palestinians change leadership will it unveil its long-awaited "road map" toward Palestinian statehood by 2005.

The deadline for the new cabinet is tomorrow, and the hurdle is security. For almost five weeks now, Mr. Abbas, who is known as Abu Mazen, has been struggling to create a cabinet that will satisfy old-line activists, young reformers and the Americans and Israelis.

The knot is Mr. Abbas's nominee for internal security minister, Muhammad Dahlan, a tough Gazan in his early 40's who has pressed Mr. Arafat to crack down on Hamas and other militant groups. He has often dealt with Israeli and American officials, who hold him in high respect.

Mr. Arafat wants to keep control of security for himself. He has disingenuously urged Mr. Abbas to propose his cabinet to the Palestinian Legislative Council tomorrow, knowing that it will be rejected if it lacks his imprimatur. Mr. Abbas has threatened to pull out.

In the remaining hours, Palestinians must ponder what they want. They are naturally loath to give any appearance of giving in to Israeli or American pressure. But they must recognize that Mr. Arafat is exploiting their allegiance not to help the people, but for his own ends. They must persuade him to get out of their way.