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Arafat's Last Threat to Israel

(FrontPageMagazine)Daniel Pipes - There will be no successor to Arafat - he made sure of that. Instead, this is the moment of the gunmen. Militiamen grasping for land and treasure will dominate the Palestinian scene for months or years ahead. Persons familiar from past diplomacy or from television (Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmed Qurei, et al.) lack gunmen, and so will have limited relevance. Eventually, two strongmen will emerge with the ability to negotiate with the Israelis and Americans. The geographic division of the West Bank and Gaza, of only minor import until now, looms large upon Arafat's passing. Whoever rules in the one unit is unlikely to gain traction in the other, making the notion of a "Palestine" that much more difficult to promote. Israel has been spared from U.S. pressure during the past three years only because Arafat continued to deploy the terrorism weapon. This grace period will come to an end once clever and powerful Palestinian leaders realize that by holding off the violence for a decent interval, they can rely on Israel's only major ally pressuring the Jewish state into making concessions.
2004-11-10 00:00:00
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