His appointment was the thinnest tissue of fiction that arafat isn't still in charge. Any thinner, and perhaps the Bush admin would not have thought it sufficient 'regime change' to 'unveil' the Road Map.
What do I think needs to be done?
1) - arrest, if not kill, arafat immediately. We & Israel both have enough terrorist goods on the guy to put him away. Prolly best that he dies before trial, tho. ;)
2) - Israel needs to stock up on guns / ammo / spare parts immediately, and get ready for the big one. It's time that they start doing what's right for Israel. The gradualism that even the bad a$$e$ like Bibi and Sharon have indulged in doesn't cut it. I don't think that the US has been holding Israel back - if that is the case, then Israeli admin upon admin has failed their country miserably. It's time for Israel to show that they have what it takes to protect themselves.
3) - Israel can take out a lot of the terrorists themselves, but it'll take the US to get them in areas outside of Israel / West Bank / Gaza. It'll also take the US to get the arab states to stop funding the terrorists (id indeed we can).
4) - If there's anyone left in the West Bank / Gaza after arafat & Hamas, et al are gone, we'll see if any of them have the guts to make peace & declare statehood. It's going to take some convincing before I think that there is a meaningful 'moderate' pali population.
He is a terrorist. He founded the PLO with Arafat in 1964. He is Arafat's buddy. He denies the Holocaust. He supports attacks on Israelis. He was the money man for the 1972 Olympic massacre in Munich of Israeli atheletes. He shook hands and hugged the Palestinian terrorist released last week from Israeli prison, who killed 14 people with the Refrigerator bomb in 1975. The PLO controls PA. The PA was established by the PLO. The PLO wants to destroy Israel. This is all a plot to get land and make it easier for the Arabs to do so.