ONE ABU OR ANOTHER

Arafat's Ugly Legacy - Zev Chafets
Arafat realized early that Arab dictators would pay to keep the Palestinian issue alive because it gave them an all-purpose diversion from the disaster they were wreaking on their own societies. He became custodian of the Palestinian grievance for everyone from Egypt's Nasser to the Saudi royal family, from Libya's Khadafi to Saddam Hussein. Taking on Israel put Arafat in the big leagues. He became a hero to the Soviet bloc and, later, to European "progressives" who never really have seen the need for a Jewish state. Arafat has dominated Palestinian political life for decades for the simplest of reasons: He has always had the most guns. Who will replace Arafat? Western diplomats almost certainly will seize on one Abu or another as their designated statesman. But eventually this figurehead will run up against the local reality that Arafat fostered: The majority of Palestinians do not want peace if it requires a compromise with Israel. (New York Daily News)

SEE ALSO: Adieu, Yasser Arafat - Uri Dromi (Forward)
Though I am now one of the many Israelis who has become disillusioned by the outbreak of the second intifada, back then I was fully committed to the Oslo Accords and, as Rabin's spokesman, I played a role in painting a more positive picture of the peace process.

A few days after the signing ceremony of the Cairo Accords in May 1994 handing over Gaza and Jericho to the Palestinians, Arafat gave a speech in Johannesburg at a local mosque. Believing he was among friends only, he talked about the agreement he had just signed: "This agreement, I am not considering it more than the agreement which had been signed between our prophet Muhammad and Qureish." For those not versed in Islamic history, the agreement, also known as the al-Khudaibiya agreement, was a 10-year peace treaty between Mohammad and the tribe of Qureish. After two years, when Mohammad had improved his military position, he tore up the agreement and slaughtered the Qureishites.

Now that Arafat seems to be on the way out, the big question is whether he has been the sole obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, or whether he simply has been representing a phenomenon common to all Palestinian leaders.

Can we at last sit down with people who, instead of double-talking, will for once keep their word? Personally, I'm not holding my breath.