Word: arafats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...blazing Mediterranean sunshine, Yasser Arafat crossed the border from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, dropped to his knees and kissed the sandy soil. As the welcoming crowd cheered and waved black-red-green-and-white flags, he was surrounded by officials and security men from the Palestine Liberation Organization. He and his aides piled into a convoy of cars and trucks carrying armed guards and sped along the main north-south route into Gaza City. Thousands of supporters roared a welcome outside the building where the Israeli army of occupation had its local headquarters until last...
...fact, Arafat's death might have led to even worse problems. Feelings of desperation could have intensified the animosity between the Palestinians and Israelis during the stone-throwing Intifada. Sections of the PLO like Hamas, the organization that carried out s several terrorist missions in the waning days of the Intifada, would undoubtedly have scaled up their activities in order to become the dominant force among the Palestinians...
Just as Israeli governments, one after the other, operate as fragile coalitions of politicians with varied interests, so too does the PLO. Without Arafat's presence to hold thing s together, chaos and martial law would have become the order of the day. Despite the protestations of Israel's religious and political right, Arafat must be kept alive and at the head of the PLO at all costs, until a stable state has existed for several years...
Given these firmly rooted interests in costly but regional wars, can we ever expect to see lasting peace in the Middle East? A bill to sell Patriot missiles to Yasir Arafat would probably have a hard time passing Congress, but that kind of idea is already on the wrong track. Pumping more arms into the area can't possible do any good. It's hard not to use your weapons when you have so darn many of them, but you've got to learn to take your hand off the trigger...
...only solution, and an improbable one at that, is de-escalation. Arafat could start by leaving that ever-present sidearm at home for a change. Why does he feel the need to continue presenting himself to his public as a war-ready revolutionary? (Sources say he actually turned up for the private peace talks in a regular suit.) In return for such a gesture, the rest of the world can give economic aid and expertise, not guns, to a new but gravely needy nation...