(The fact that Oslo wasn't going to work is suggested by the fact that Sharon was able destroy it with a single act, indeed with a non-violent act. Oslo was like a pyramid sitting on its apex, in econ-talk an unstable equilibrium.)
I don't understand the exaggeration of Arafat's power (something that the US media and Israel apologists do all the time). The man is corrupt (on a lot of levels) and weak in terms of his ability to get anything done, especially when there's opposition. It was his corruption and his weakness that made him an attractive partner at Oslo: he wouldn't push for anything that would hurt powerful interest-groups in Israel; he could be bought off. Of course, that meant that he couldn't control such groups as Hamas (which Israel had cultivated as an alternative to Arafat). Undermining Arafat -- either by buying off Arafat at Oslo or by locking him up in his compound and humiliating him after Oslo fell apart -- has proven to increase Hamas' power. (In effect, the biggest pro-Hamas force is Sharon's government.)
BTW, please lay off Brad's personal appearance! No one's perfect, while _ad hominem_ is as fallacious as Brad's either/or thinking.
------------------------ Jim Devine jdevine at lmu.edu & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
> >Brad DeLong wrote:
> >
> >>But at least before he died he got to see his dearest wish: the
> >>destruction of the Oslo Peace Process.
> >
> >My god. If you're going to be nasty, especially about the recently
> >dead, try to show some respect for the facts.
> >
> >Doug
>
> You think he liked the Oslo Peace Process?
>
> I agree that he liked what's going on now a lot less. But what's
> going on now was, IMHO, a very predictable consequence of the
> smashing of Oslo by Netanyahu, Sharon, and Arafat.