> Luke Weiger wrote:
>
> >What if I spent my time analyzing Palestinian failures of diplomacy that
> >have "resulted" in their inability to get a state? Wouldn't I be seen as
> an
> >apologist for Israel?
>
> Not necessarily. Unless, of course, that was your intention.
.
The British Palestinian scholar Yezid Sayigh published a scathing critique of Arafat's diplomacy in a prestigious international affairs journal. No one accuses him of being an apologist for Israel.
Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, on the other hand, coined the cliche that the Palestinians "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." He was certainly an apologist.
Arafat and the Anatomy of a Revolt Yezid Sayigh is Consulting Senior Fellow for the Middle East at the IISS and Assistant Director of Studies at the Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge. He has lived part-time in the West Bank and Gaza since September 2000. In October 2000, at the onset of the latest intifada, key political and security officials on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side still considered an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal to be politically realisable. Some of the substance of a mutually acceptable deal finally emerged at the bilateral talks held in the Red Sea resort of Taba in late January 2001, but by then it was too late to alter the course of events. The present situation of low-intensity conflict will almost certainly persist for the rest of 2001, and in all likelihood for at least another year beyond that. Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat bears much of the responsibility for this precarious state of affairs, though not for the reasons cited by official Israeli sources. Contrary to the Israeli account, his behaviour since the start of the intifada has reflected not the existence of a prior strategy based on the use of force, but the absence of any strategy. His political management has been marked by a high degree of improvisation and short-termism, confirming the absence of an original strategy and of a clear purpose.
Seth