Word: fatah
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Even before Rimawi's arrest, Arafat was recalibrating his strategy. Aides tell TIME he was disturbed by a March 2 suicide bombing in Jerusalem by activists of his own Fatah organization. The attack struck a community--the ultra-Orthodox Jews of Jerusalem's poor central district--that is relatively moderate in its view of relations with the Palestinians. The bomb wiped out a family, the Nehmads--two parents and their two children, a nephew and two cousins...
Arafat called his "battlefield leadership," the men who run Fatah's part in the Palestinian uprising, to his Ramallah office the next day. According to sources who were present, he told the Fatah leaders that he wanted no more suicide bombings inside Israel because they harm the image of the Palestinians internationally and harden the will of Israelis against him. Angrily, Arafat told the group that the people who carried out the Jerusalem operation were "collaborators serving the strategy of Sharon to show that every Palestinian is a terrorist." He then interrupted the meeting to call an ultra-Orthodox rabbi...
...press Arafat to disarm all unofficial militias in his domain. That may be a tough call. Hamas has vowed to ignore any cease-fire, and may well try and spoil Zinni's visit with more carnage on Israel's streets. But the bigger question concerns the fate of the Fatah militias broadly loyal to Arafat that have reclaimed the dominant role in the "armed struggle" from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These militias believe guerrilla warfare will end Israel's occupation of the West Band and Gaza. Arafat may well believe their effectiveness has helped restore his political fortunes by creating...
...from Palestinian areas recently reoccupied as a concession. More important, the Israelis believe - with good reason - that no matter what cease-fire agreement is reached, Yasser Arafat will be unable or unwilling to take down Hamas and Islamic Jihad, much less to disarm the militias linked to his own Fatah movement. The Israelis may be trying to get as much of the job done themselves before Washington requires a tamping down of hostilities...
...cease-fire. That, and the rage of the Palestinian public stirred by the latest Israeli operations, suggest they'll try to cut short Zinni's visit (and spoil Cheney's) with a series of terror outrages in Israel's cities. Even the militants of Arafat's own Fatah organization now believe that armed struggle is more effective than U.S.-brokered negotiations...