Over 350 Palestinians dead, Israeli army blockades wherever they turn, growing poverty and nothing to show for it all: Six months into the second intifada, the Palestinian facade of unity is crumbling, and leader Yasser Arafat's authority, never very impressive, is getting weaker by the day.
The most convincing demonstration of that, paradoxically enough, was the recent claim by Palestinian Communications Minister Imad Falouji that the intifada was preplanned by the Palestinian Authority as a means of bringing pressure on Israel. "It had been planned since President Arafat's return from (the abortive peace talks last July at) Camp David, when he turned the tables on the former U.S. president and rejected the American conditions," Falouji told a rally in a refugee camp in Lebanon in early March.
Various people in Israel pounced on that statement as proof that Arafat was negotiating in bad faith, but what it really shows is the widening cracks in the Palestinian camp. No real ally of Arafat's would admit that, even if it were true, since it would do terrible damage to his leader's credibility. Falouji, on the other hand, is a former member of Hamas, the fundamentalist organization that is opposed in principle to peace with Israel, and whose military wing is responsible for most of the recent terrorist attacks in Israel.