To: JohnM who wrote (115004 ) 9/17/2003 3:17:35 AM From: Nadine Carroll Read Replies (2) | Respond to Agha and Malley would be the ones to write such a summary, mentioning everything but fact that the Terror War now going on was launched by Arafat and is prosecuted by organizations on his payroll as well as Hamas et. al. Indeed, look at this fancy verbal footwork they use to slide responsibility off him:He hears people blaming him for launching the intifada, encouraging the violence, failing to step in. What do they know? Violence as he sees it is not something he ignites; it is something that happens when conditions permit and that he may, or may not, try to stop. Decisions are made through an informal, implicit process. He is simply their best interpreter and executor, acting on behalf of a broad consensus among the many political constituencies, weighing as they do the political cost of tolerating violence against the political cost of stopping it. But there is in this nothing special about violence; in his eyes it is merely one instrument among many at the Palestinians' disposal, not more or less legitimate, and certainly not less legitimate than those deployed by Israel
