BEIRUT -- The closer Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat gets to the fulfillment of his long-standing dream of establishing a Palestinian state, the more his plans seem to go awry. Now holed up in Ramallah, just 10 km from the holy city, his chances of ever entering it look their bleakest ever.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon demands the arrest and punishment of all the Palestinian terrorists in Arafat's midst, but bombs the very institutions of the Palestine Authority that are supposed to carry out this task. It is his forceful means of reinforcing the message that the dominant rightwing Israeli establishment trumpets forth: If Arafat won't do the job, Israel will do it for him, and banish, or kill, him in the bargain.
Arafat has been written off many times. Yet his resilience in adversity is legendary. So while this is one of the most desperate crises of his long and turbulent career, it may still not be his terminal one.