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The Case of the Missing Reform Movement

(Jerusalem Post) Barry Rubin - Yasser Arafat has killed off the Palestinian reform movement with the greatest of ease. The Palestinian legislature's much-touted refusal to approve his cabinet collapsed the moment he made tiny changes in its composition. As much as they might grumble, the secondary leaders will not try to replace him no matter how many catastrophes he leads them into. Activists in both Hamas and Fatah still believe in the prospect of victory over Israel through the systematic use of terrorism. They think that attacking its civilians will make Israel withdraw from the West Bank unilaterally or bring international intervention to hand them a state without any compromise on their part. The extent of Palestinian human or material losses is made to seem irrelevant to them. Steadfastness will bring victory, Other Palestinian leaders, and the general public, dare not speak out because Arafat and the radicals still dominate their world view and set the permissible options. The PLO, Fatah, the media, the educational system, and other Palestinian institutions - all controlled by Arafat and his lieutenants - still overwhelmingly preach a hard line. From every direction Palestinians are told that Israel does not want peace and that the U.S. is their enemy.
2002-11-07 00:00:00
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