Arafat's Long Journey

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The Palestinian delegates were willing to consider these ideas, but Arafat was having a hard time swallowing them. Says a senior aide: "His inclination is to leave the outstanding issues for another generation to solve. He prefers not to have the compromises on his head." Back home, in a handful of cities last week, Palestinians demonstrated against concessions to Israel. One group in Ramallah marched under a banner that read: HE WHO ABANDONS THE RIGHT OF RETURN IS A TRAITOR. There was no mystery as to who he was. Arafat is said to be haunted by the specter of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's 1981 assassination by Muslim zealots opposed to his peacemaking with Israel. And Egypt, at least, got back 100% of the territory Israel conquered from it in the 1967 war--an outcome the Israelis foreclose to the Palestinians.

Arafat's fear of looking like a dupe, or worse, in any final deal with Israel was accentuated by Israel's offer to Syria, in since-aborted talks, to return 100% of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau Israel seized in 1967. Then, in May, Israel withdrew from all of south Lebanon, ending an 18-year occupation. Accordingly, Arafat has argued, there is no reason he should settle for less than Israel's total departure from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The border dispute is most acute along the so-called Green Line where it divides East and West Jerusalem. Citing the centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism, the Israelis insist on maintaining their primacy over all of the city, though they have suggested allowing Arafat limited control over some of the Palestinian neighborhoods in the East and might let him fly a Palestinian flag over the Haram al-Sharif, the third holiest site in Islam, from which, according to legend, the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

But Arafat's legacy won't rest solely on issues of territory. It will also depend on the kind of state he builds. It's not only how the Palestinian state is founded, but also how it is run, how it grows, that will be part of his historical record. In the six years that he has governed the Palestinian areas already under self-rule, he has hardly managed to build a thriving, democratic society. His governmental record has been characterized by corruption, mismanagement and a contempt for civil rights. Arafat should be able to count on billions in U.S. and international aid if a peace deal comes through. But he so far hasn't shown much skill in putting any of the more limited resources at his command to work.