BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW? :

WHAT IT MEANS: Politically, Arafat is a dead man walking (David Landau, 6/25/02, Ha'aretz)

Yasser Arafat, the seemingly immortal leader of the Palestinian national movement, was politically assassinated Monday by President George W. Bush.

His role as Israel's prospective partner in any future diplomatic process was effectively snuffed out by a stern-sounding American president, delivering his verdict on two years of violent intifada and his recipe for a turnabout towards peace in this war-torn region.

Bush's verdict: Arafat is the guilty party. [...]

Bush's sentence was brutal and unequivocal: "Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership," he pronounced.

Great--now we get to deal with Hamas... Posted by Orrin Judd at June 24, 2002 10:08 PM