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Arafat to Exploit Court Ruling for Sympathy, Control
(Jerusalem Post) Khaled Abu Toameh - Ever since he arrived in Gaza in 1994, Arafat has been seeking to internationalize the conflict in order to isolate Israel and force it to make more concessions. The ruling is likely to ease the pressure on him to give up power and end corruption since everyone will be busy talking about the fence. Now Arafat will tell all those who are pressing him to reform that he will do so only when Israel respects the court ruling on the fence. Many Palestinians are hailing the court opinion as an "historic and major" achievement for Palestinian diplomacy. "The Palestinian cause is back on the top of the world's agenda," said one senior PA official on Saturday. According to sources close to the PA, Arafat will now try to persuade the international community to put some of Israel's political and military officials on trial for war crimes. "The fence is only part of the problem. We want to dig deeper. We want to see people like Sharon and Mofaz stand trial like [former Yugoslav President] Milosevic," said a Palestinian legal expert.