[Shermy]

Let's see. The Saudi/New York Times Peace Plan, plagiarized without credit by the Jordanians for Saudi P.R. purposes was "evolving" recently to add more and more demands, like the Syrian issues.

Now Arafat accepts the "Clinton plan" - which revision? Does he fear he's becoming irrelevant, so he makes a grand gesture again? Will it lock in the Palies?

It was Ross who recently said on TV that Arafat was the problem, and wouldn't cede the Israelis the Western Wall. I didn't know to believe this guy - but seeing that Arafat is expressly mentioning it here, it was true! He was demanding that the Wall be given to him! Now he's conceding he argued for that very thing!

Will this point be lost on the press? Probably. It shames Arafat as unreasonable in the first place, and undermines the story the pali p.r. people constructed about the negotiations, the cruel israeli demands, etc.

Here's a link to Hume's interview of Ross

Dennis Ross on Fox News Sunday (What Arafat Turned Down)

ROSS: He supposed to give, on Jerusalem, the idea that there would be for the Israelis sovereignty over the Western Wall, which would cover the areas that are of religious significance to Israel. He rejected that.

HUME: He rejected their being able to have that?

ROSS: He rejected that.

[SJackson]

Kind of like the Taliban turning Osama over and asking for their country back.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

By definition, if Arafat now accepts the "Clinton Peace Plan" then Arafat admits his intifada was a miserable failure and both Arab leaders and the "Arab street" will abandon him.