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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (52217)	10/15/2002 1:10:09 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 281500

The last time I saw Clinton argue on this one, he agreed that the offer from Barak was a good one, that the Palestinians made a huge mistake not to take it, but that the failure to take it was not evidence that they wished to drive the Israelis into the sea. According to recent polls, Palestinian opinion is about 50/50 on this question. When asked the goals of the intifada, half say to end the occupation, half to "liberate" all of Palestine. Then again, Hamas has never been shy about stating its goals in this matter.

To: JohnM who wrote (52217)	10/15/2002 1:13:08 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

The Palestinians now say they wished to continue to negotiate, Which Palestinians, led by whom? If this is true, you've got information I haven't seen. All I saw after the Barak/Arafat talks were suicide bombers, not exactly the best way to intimate a desire to negotiate. Arafat certainly was not willing to negotiate. I think the truth is that Arafat saw a glimmer of peace, with Israel a viable state as part of the deal, and did not want to negotiate further because it meant the end of his maximalist "send the Jews swimming" fantasy. But you're right, I can't prove it. However, this version fits better with the reality of the abrupt end to negotiations followed by suicide bombers. And, of course, not all Palestinians want an end to Israel. Unfortunately, Arafat's tactics have radicalized a lot of them because they drew the utterly predictable response Arafat would have been an idiot not to anticipate, namely, an invasion of the West Bank.