The Eternal Agitator

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In that role, at least, Arafat will be remembered as a success. When Golda Meir said in 1969 that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people, her remark wasn't entirely preposterous. Israelis didn't believe the Palestinians were a people, but neither did leaders of the Arab states or for that matter Palestinian intellectuals taken with the cause of pan-Arabism. It was Arafat who insisted on a separate identity for the Arabs of what had been the British mandate of Palestine. He articulated the cause of Palestinian independence, organized and fought for it and, despite sometimes deplorable means--including the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the massacre of 21 children at an Israeli school in 1974--won its legitimacy. It was a testament to Arafat's leadership that Palestinians continued to support him in the early years of self-rule even as he performed miserably as their hands-on governor, imposing a regime that was blunt, brutal, inept and corrupt.

By the time of Arafat's death, though, a good number of his supporters had tired of his implacable devotion to struggle. While few Palestinians thought their salvation would come through the kind of peacemaking with Israel that Arafat's obstinacy had foreclosed, few thought he was leading them anywhere worth going. Despite the show of emotion after his death, many will greet his passing as much with quiet relief as with sadness. The P.L.O. leader told TIME in 1968 that all he wanted was for the Palestinians "to be like other people and have no need for Arafat." He got the second half of his wish. --With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Jerusalem