Word: intifadas
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...Sharon is in a strategic bind. His talk of local-level Palestinian leaders who might prove more pliable than Arafat is somewhat delusional. It is precisely these local-level leaders who have for the most part defied Arafat's periodic cease-fire calls and have vowed to continue the intifada despite the diplomatic maneuvering of their national leader. It is at the local level that the structures of Arafat's Fatah coordinate directly with the militants of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and where even Arafat's own rank-and-file reserves the right to conduct armed attacks on Israeli soldiers...
...West Bank and Gaza, the portent of his latest message is not yet clear. Pronouncing Arafat "irrelevant" simply repeats, hyperbolically, what many close observers of Palestinian politics have warned of for months - that the aging leader's political authority has waned over the course of the current intifada to the point that he is no longer able to impose his will on the Palestinian street. Or, he is unable to find the political will to reassert his authority against the tide of Palestinian public opinion. Either way, the upshot is the same...
...into Palestinian towns from which terror cells operate have not stemmed the tide of suicide bombings. And more sustained, long-term operations in Palestinian towns and refugee camps carry the risk of a substantial increase in Israeli casualties for limited tactical benefits. After all, the difference between the first intifada and the current one is that there are now tens of thousands of assault rifles, grenades and makeshift mortars in Palestinian hands - which is precisely why disarming the unofficial militias had been a critical element of the Mitchell cease-fire plan...
...been planned long in advance. Imad al-Faluji, the Palestinian Authority (PA) minister for communications, put it plainly during a speech in Gaza in December 2000 (reported by the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ayyam): “The PA had begun to prepare for the outbreak of the current intifada since the return from the Camp David negotiations, by request of President Yasser Arafat…and not as a specific protest against Sharon’s visit.” In other words, as al-Faluji put it later, “Whoever thinks that the intifada broke...
...particularly when they're being confronted by thousands of angry demonstrators. Hamas has been the primary beneficiary of the alienation of many Palestinians from the corruption of the PA, the failure of the peace process and of Arafat's declining political authority over the 14 months of the second intifada...