Aiding Arafat / Israeli siege gives him a new lease on life

Thursday, October 03, 2002

What does Israel think it is doing with regard to Yasser Arafat? Israel has said it wants to see him gone. So has the Bush administration. There is a decent argument that says a peace accord between the Israelis and Palestinians is virtually impossible to reach with him still in charge on the Palestinian side.

So why then help him politically by cooping him up and trashing his headquarters? And then letting him go free?

A few weeks ago there were signs that the Palestinians -- pretty much by themselves -- were manifesting a clear will to get rid of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and replace him with new leaders.

Even though the Israeli Defense Forces have nearly eliminated the ability of the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank and Gaza to rule, even in the part of those territories that they still nominally control, the Palestinian Authority is still all there is to negotiate with on the Palestinian side.

The Palestinian National Council threatened a vote of no confidence in Mr. Arafat's government last month and forced its resignation. This was one manifestation of new political friskiness in Palestinian political circles in anticipation of scheduled January elections. Another was increasingly open Palestinian criticism of Mr. Arafat.

Then came more terrorist attacks against Israelis, outrageous and subversive of the peace process, but probably a phenomenon that Mr. Arafat couldn't control even if he wanted to. Israel's response was to corner Mr. Arafat in Ramallah again and bulldoze everything around his immediate headquarters. In no time the Bush administration responded to the growing sympathy for the beleaguered Palestinian leader and told the Israelis to lay off.

The Israelis eventually did relent, and Mr. Arafat emerged from the rubble, smiling triumphantly, his election prospects unfortunately enhanced.