He would be neither a Palestinian David Ben-Gurion leading his people toward practical politics and statehood nor an Anwar Sadat accepting the logic of peace and compromise. It was a pity for the Palestinians that Yasser Arafat was what he was: a juggler, a trimmer, a man who never had it in him to tell his people great historical truths about their condition in the world of nations and their practical possibilities. The void, and the failure, Arafat leaves in his wake were of his own making. He indulged his people's worst fantasies and squandered great opportunities that opened up for them.American diplomacy in the Clinton years, too, fell under Arafat's spell, and the White House bet that he would stand up to the boys of terror and the fearsome masked men. But in the summer of 2000, at Camp David, Arafat wrecked the political career of his Israeli negotiating partner, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and frustrated Bill Clinton, who had made the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace the cornerstone of his diplomacy. Clinton had come to that passionate pursuit armed with his celebrated charm and a sense of American optimism. In Arafat's evasion, Clinton met an obstacle he could not overcome. In his recently published memoirs, Bill Clinton tells of Yasser Arafat's thanking him for his efforts and assuring him that history will record that the American president had been a "great man." Clinton was not in the mood for flattery; he had come to know his man by now and said to him: "Mr. Chairman, I am not a great man. I am a failure, and you have made me one."
It is idle to lament the historic opportunities wasted by this man. The fault lies not in a leader whose weaknesses were known the world over but in the illusions and the hopes invested in him by outsiders willing to be deluded. When it truly counted, Palestinian history needed the healer's art and a leader's courage. In Yasser Arafat, it was to beget a juggler who never knew when history came calling, who would never accept the burden of choice and the logic of political responsibility.
Good read, though too soft on the old bastard. Good riddance.