NEWSMAKER - Arafat's Palestinian state remains a distant dream
| NEWSMAKER - Arafat's Palestinian state remains a distant dream |
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By Wafa Amr
RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 29 (Reuters) - From his early
days as a guerrilla fighter to his 1994 return from exile as
Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat has defied the odds to
pursue the struggle for an independent Palestinian state.
But his long-held dream looks far from realisation after
Israeli forces entered his presidential compound in the West
Bank city of Ramallah as part of Israeli efforts to isolate him
and crack down on militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has confined Arafat to
Ramallah for more than three months in his drive to quell the
18-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Arafat, 72, who wears his trademark black-and-white
chequered headdress in the shape of a map of Palestine, pledged
from his besieged office to continue the struggle for a state
with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital.
"No Palestinian and no one in the Arab nation will surrender
or kneel," he said in a telephone interview.
Vowing to defy Sharon, he added: "The only thing he can do
is take me as the corpse of a martyr. He will not take me any
other way."
Arafat's popularity among his people has risen since his
confinement began in early December, while opinion polls show
Israelis have been losing confidence in Sharon.
But he came under new pressure on Friday, when Sharon
declared him an enemy and vowed to take widespread action to
isolate his Palestinian Authority wherever it was believed to be
fostering a "terrorist infrastructure".
Palestinian officials said Arafat was facing the toughest
challenge of his political life and a new test of his reputation
as a political survivor.
Many Middle East observers say that if anyone can get out of
this fix it is Arafat, long renowned for his wiliness and his
ability to survive whatever comes his way, from civil wars to a
plane crash in the Libyan desert in 1991.
"Arafat was able to lead his people from exile, and he'll
continue to lead his people no matter what kind of situation
he's in," said Palestinian political analyst Ghassan al-Khatib.
"His political position is much stronger now because his
people feel they can identify with him. The Palestinians and now
the Arab public do understand he's facing this pressure because
he refuses to make political concessions," he said.
MORE BLOODSHED FEARED
Israeli political analyst Abraham Sela said putting Arafat
under such pressure could have the opposite effect to the one
desired by Israel, by fuelling Palestinian resentment and
provoking more violence.
"Will placing Arafat under siege solve the problem? No,
definitely not. Violence will lead to more violence," he said.
Israel and the United States want Arafat to crack down on
militant Islamic groups behind suicide bombings, but Palestinian
support for such groups has swelled since the uprising began.
Arafat says army blockades and Israeli attacks on
Palestinian security targets have limited his ability to arrest
the militants and prevent their attacks.
Arafat has survived assassination squads, Israel's 1982
invasion of his Lebanon power base and international isolation
after he took Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's side in the
buildup to the 1991 Gulf War.
He shared a Nobel Peace Prize with slain Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, Israel's foreign
minister, for signing the historic 1993 Oslo peace accords.
The peace accords led to his return from exile in 1994 as
Palestinian president, and he subsequently managed to gain
partial or full control of about 40 percent of the West Bank and
much of the Gaza Strip.
After 18 months of tit-for-tat violence, the interim peace
deals now lie in tatters.
Since the uprising began Israelis have been divided, some
demanding tougher action against Arafat, including ousting him,
while others want their army to withdraw completely from the
territories it has occupied since 1967.
Both Palestinian and Israeli analysts predict much worse
bloodshed and insecurity if a ceasefire is not reached soon.
Sela said keeping Arafat penned up in Ramallah was unlikely to
help secure a truce.
"Keeping Arafat in Ramallah during this operation will make
the whole effort look even more ridiculous, and if Arafat
remains the ultimate authority he will not be more receptive to
the Israeli demands," Sela said.
((Jerusalem Newsroom, +972 2 537 0502;
jerusalem.newsroom@reuters.com))
29 MAR 2002 14:29:32
NEWSMAKER-Arafat's Palestinian state remains a distant dream
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