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Yasser Arafat

(Washington Post)Editorial - The people of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are among the most able, educated, entrepreneurial, and politically sophisticated of the Middle East; they are more than capable of creating the peaceful and democratic state that President Bush and the UN have proposed for them. But Arafat poisoned his movement with terrorism and sabotaged it through his refusal to embrace the settlement with Israel that was possible years ago. Arafat was autocratic, corrupt, deceiving and, ultimately, unwilling to unambiguously accept Israel's permanence. A vigorous effort by the U.S. and allied Arab and European governments to promote a democratic process to choose a new leader, and a genuine offer by Israel to quickly resume negotiations on the basis of the road map, could open the way to a responsible Palestinian administration and, conceivably, a breakthrough toward an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
2004-11-12 00:00:00
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