On Arafat's position towards violence

The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his people stand alone in a battle of life and death, without any real support apart from statements of solidarity.

A new term was added to those statements, which is 'end the Palestinian violence' to equalize between the violence of occupation and the resistance of a people living under this occupation, which means that Arafat only has his intelligence and the limited resources of the Palestinian National Authority to find an outlet for his people from the 'barbaric Israeli aggression' which is strengthened by advanced American weapons and the support of the U.S. media.

Many Arab states organizations and others thought that what is happening is a catastrophe to Israel and Arafat should maintain the state of war.

We do not know if Arafat's intelligence will help him to save his people and his Authority form a fate similar to the Armenians and the Chechens who underwent genocide amid the international indifference.

The Palestinian people must stand united behind the PNA and its decisions, for if they don't, Sharon's military plans will have the opportunity to succeed.

Arafat's dilemma is that of the Palestinian people, and that it is up to all Palestinians to use their intelligence to escape from this dilemma and avoid catastrophe.

-- Al Arab Al Yawm, Amman, Jordan