Heard Powell on This Week and he still sounds clueless to me. He's all for recruiting known terrorist states into the anti-terrorist coalition just so long as they promise to clean up their act in the future...yeah, right.
Speaking of known terrorist states, Arafat is positioning himself to get on the winning side this time around by calling a "cease-fire". He even called for it in Arabic as well as English this time. Of course his aides know better than to believe his words on-air so they wait for written orders and signals from Arafat's actions.
The signals seem to indicate: Don't shoot or bomb any Israelis inside the Green Line. There's still shooting, mortars, and bombs all over the territories and Arafat hasn't lifted a finger against the Tanzim, Hamas, or Islamic Jihad, who've all announced their intention to ignore the "cease-fire". His control is slipping -- the Tanzim used to obey him, at least officially. Needless to say, this is not what the Israelis mean by 'quiet'.
If Powell lets Arafat into the coalition he's an utter dufus.
BTW, Sharon cancelled the Peres-Arafat meetng. Again. |
