Showdown

The Palestinian leader didn't seem to be in the mood for appeasing critics. The point man for the U.S. with Arafat is Anthony Zinni, Powell's newly appointed special envoy for the Middle East. Arafat so far is not taken with the retired general. "He treats me like a soldier who's supposed to obey orders," Arafat told aides after their first meeting. Another mediator who failed to bond with Arafat last week was Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. Usually, Arafat counts on Egypt to support his positions, but this time the Palestinians didn't like what Maher had to say. In a three-hour meeting with Arafat on Thursday, Maher told him his Fatah faction was linked too closely in international eyes with the terrorists of Hamas. "You have to dissociate yourself from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, so we can defuse the Israeli aggression," Maher said, according to an Arafat aide who was present. "You have a problem with the Americans, the Israelis and with us. We can't support you as long as you are besieged by Islamists."

Arafat had one friendly visitor last week--an Israeli at that. Tamar Gozansky, a member of the Israeli Parliament from the leftist Hadash Party, met with him Tuesday evening in Ramallah. Arafat was in a somber spirit, she said, quiet and tired. He told her he thought Israel was exploiting the deeds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to destroy him. Arafat smiled only once, Gozansky said; that was when she told him she hadn't given up her belief in the peace process. It wasn't clear whether he grinned in appreciation, or out of amusement at her naivete.