The future is tough

The joyous return of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Gaza Friday apparently gave his people a taste of independence and statehood. The situation will hopefully make the Israelis remember that millions of Palestinians are still living outside their homeland -- many in refugee camps -- while their homes in what is now Israel are occupied by immigrants from the United States and Eastern Europe. This expectation is not unreasonable because they still expect the world to remember the suffering of Jews during World War II.

The Israeli authorities are also expected to shoulder the responsibility of making the Palestinians safe from any attacks by radical Israeli settlers. The need for protection is urgent because the Palestinians are facing herculean tasks themselves, such as developing an effective authority in Gaza and Jericho.

The burden was echoed in Arafat's speech where he started talking business, an unexpected move in the midst of his euphoria. Obviously, the Palestinian Authority is badly in need of financial aid. Arafat did not try to hide his feelings of irritation by Western countries' failure to meet their promise to send US$270 million in aid, because what they referred to as "disagreements over conditions of payment."

The Palestinian Minister of Economy, Ahmad Korei, also failed to agree, recently, on the terms with the World Bank because the latter insisted on detailed procedures to show how the money would be spent.

The problem has begun to look like it might become a catch-22; the Palestinians are in dire need of funds to build an effective system, but the World Bank has demanded detailed information on how the system is going to work before they hand over the funds.

Another tragic irony is the Palestinian leader can no longer turn to the helping hands of the oil-rich Arab rulers. Arafat angered them when he demonstratively supported Iraq's Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. And the wealthy rulers are still angry with both of them because Saddam has never showed the world that he has learned from the lessons of the war; the tyrant of Baghdad has reportedly started rebuilding his war machines.

While Arafat has fearlessly told the West "We are emerging from a military occupation and we do not want to replace said it with an economic occupation," the Palestinian leader is clearly finding out that those words will be difficult to live with. The financial situation has become a major uphill battle, and he has been forced to call on his political opponents to come and share the weight.

This move will, no doubt, be a difficult pill for him to swallow. A group of elite intellectuals and politicians have opposed the peace agreement he signed in Washington and the deal he made with the Israeli leaders in Cairo in May. To them, the Washington agreement is a minefield which contains many loopholes which the Israelis could use to their advantage. Also, many of Arafat's lieutenants have reportedly made the situation worse by giving emotional responses to the criticisms.

Other critics have accused him practicing of one-man rule due the fact that the Palestinian Liberation Organization has not set up a sound decision-making system within itself.

Arafat might still have the opportunity to win back old friends and influence new supporters if he would be willing to build a democratic system within his government and hold a general elections in the near future.

We believe Arafat will not be scared by these possibilities, as long as he is as sure that he is the leader the Palestinians need both in war and in peace.

Despite the euphoria that the return held for Arafat, his and the Palestinians' future is far from bright. He must now prove wrong the people have come to believe that Abu Ammar -- so his people call him -- is more image than reality and more symbolic than consequential.