President Bush is now saying that the Palestinian people need to
dump Yassir Arafat and start building a real democracy. It’s a nice change of pace from the " partner for peace" bullshit that has been coming from the Administration of late. It’s clear that Arafat is too tied to the intifada to be committed to peace. As Madeleine Albright once said, "Yassir Arafat never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity". Unfortunately, it’s all too true. Arafat is one of the prime reasons why the Palestinians are stuck in the mire that they’re in now.
Unfortunately, Bush’s cries are too little too late. Arafat’s already used his ability to wield terror and his cozy position with terrorist and funamentalist groups to make him into another Castro. Short of assassination or revolution, Arafat’s unlikely to budge. Unfortunately, he’s also ensured that any moderate Palestinians are too afraid of his security forces or the Palestinian fundamentalists to move against him. At this point, it appears that the long Mexican standoff between Israel and Palestine isn’t going to end any time in the near future.
While I concur with your analysis that Arafat is a crazy, evil, hateful man who wants peace the way a pimp wants religion to sweep the land, I’d have to add that Sharon is almost as unlikely to offer anything beneficial to the process. He’s just as rigid and spiteful.
In some ways, Sharon is a product of Arafat’s refusal to sign the Clinton accords. Had Arafat signed that agreement when it was presented to him (as his aides told him to do), Sharon would never have been put into power. By launching the intifada after Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount, they virtually assured his election.
However, if the Palestinians were to make a serious overture to peace, Sharon wouldn’t have the one thing he needs to hold his coalition together, and he’d quickly be replaced by someone viewed as more moderate such as Shimon Peres. Until the Palestinians are willing to do that, each attack only furthers the resolve of those who view peace as an impossibility.