The Death of Arafat and the Myth of New Beginnings by Mark Levine in Juan Cole’s Blog
Here is a graf:
"In the weeks leading up to Palestinian President Yassir Arafat’s death
American politicians and pundits have repeatedly called on the
Palestinian people to use the opportunity of his passing to transform
the intifada from a violent uprising into a non-violent, democratic and
pragmatic program for achieving independence. This is very good advice,
needless to say, except for one small problem: Palestinians have been
trying to build such a movement for the last two decades, and the
Israeli Government, IDF and American policy-makers have done everything
possible to make sure it could not be heeded."