PALESTINIANS: "WE LOST THE WAR"

Intifada Fatigue - Dan Ephron
As Palestinians prepare to choose a successor to Arafat, people across the West Bank and Gaza are talking more openly about the damage wrought by their insurrection and the little they have to show for the deaths of more than 3,000 Palestinians (and 1,000 Israelis). Politically, Palestinians appear to be much further from their goal of an independent state in all of the West Bank and Gaza than they were four years ago. Economically, the average Palestinian wage has dropped by one-third during the years of fighting, according to the World Bank.

In the Palestinian towns, where much of the fighting has taken place, frustration with the intifada is acute. Muawad Karmi, a political activist and municipal worker in Tulkarm, says Palestinians have simply been defeated by a better-armed adversary. "It's obvious that a majority of Palestinians now just want to have some quiet," he says. "We've lost our martyrs for nothing." (Newsweek)