Other Israeli officials, sniffing the wind, are conferring with key Palestinians
Key phrase. It's purely defensive - "see, we are too talking!".
Both sides know it's completely useless until Arafat dies. The PA now has a caretaker government with only one reformer, put in at outside insistence, Fayed, the finance minister. Everybody else is Arafat's stooge, esp. the new interior minister and Prime Minister.
Very weak, with very great tensions, as part of the PA wants to keep up the intifada while other parts recognize it for a disaster.
When Arafat dies, the funeral games should be interesting. Debka says that Arafat floated the name of Kaddoumi as a successor. Kaddoumi is a PLO hard-liner who never accepted Oslo. I don't understand internal PA machinations, but you don't have to be a genius to know that the Young Turks, the native Palestines, are never going to accept another Tunisian placed on top of them. But it makes sense for Arafat in a way. All his life, he has feared having a strong lieutenant or a successor. I guess he figures he would be bumped off the minute he had one. So he keeps his subordinates weak by doubling up their duties, playing them off against each other, and dismissing and re-hiring them at whim. |
