Inside Arafat's Bunker

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Aides to Arafat say that is also about how often each day he compares the current siege of his Ramallah office with Israel's 1982 blockade of his bunker in Beirut. "We are under siege, like in Beirut," Arafat told aides Wednesday morning. Back then Arafat escaped Sharon, who was Israel's Defense Minister. Benefiting from a U.S.-brokered deal, Arafat sailed out of Beirut, heroic in defeat and vowing to fight on to Palestine. But there's no refuge this time. His aides know it, though none will tell him, and the atmosphere in the Muqata'a is despondent. Arafat struck a gallant and sacrificial pose at a meeting in his office with Palestinian professors last week. "All I ask God is to grant me martyrdom in Jerusalem," Arafat said. "This is not the first time we have been besieged by Israeli tanks." But the rhetoric wears thin in private; aides say Arafat has been quiet and a little sullen.

Outside the Muqata'a, Fatah activists set up a protest marquee under the guns of the Israeli tanks last week. About 100 marched from the center of Ramallah along al-Irsal Street toward Arafat's office. Traffic stopped as they moved down the road to confront with stones and slingshots the Israeli soldiers who would fire back with rubber bullets. But after they had passed, the busy street filled with its usual quarrelsome car horns and smells of frying falafel. It was far from the communal desperation of the intifadeh's early days. Palestinians have their own sieges to worry about, as they wait on massive lines to pass Israeli checkpoints. If Sharon wants to make Arafat seem irrelevant, he may be succeeding on al-Irsal Street.