Editorial
Peace without Arafat

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For all the uncertainty and speculation in the Middle East about the future without Yasser Arafat, take heart in an observation by biographer Barry Rubin in the Jerusalem Post: "There are people in the leadership who genuinely understand the mess into which Arafat has led the Palestinians."

Arafat's physical and administrative departure from his headquarters in Ramallah, West Bank, marks the beginning of real prospects for peace in a very tough neighborhood. Undisclosed medical ailments took him to a hospital in Paris where at week's end he was in a coma. With Arafat incapacitated and near death, those around him recognized an opportunity of fresh leadership for the first time in 40 years.

In dusty refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, Arafat will be remembered as a nationalist and liberator, whose heroic deeds forced the world to pay attention. The international community, whose sympathy for Palestinians grew as Israel's occupation stretched toward four decades, saw a fumbler and buffoon with the blood of schoolchildren on his hands.

Arafat is famously known for never missing a chance to miss a chance. Repulsed by his refusal to halt terrorist attacks on Israel or bargain in good faith, the Bush administration wrote him off and refused to deal with him for the past two years.

Rekindling peace efforts will take time, but it will happen. Arafat consolidated power that will be parsed out and fought over. He ran the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian Authority and Fatah. These sat atop another layer of 13 Palestinian factions.

They do everything from provide schools and medical care, to negotiate self-serving deals with Israeli companies for commercial goods that have to be trucked into the camps. Even those who revered Arafat knew he resided over a fundamentally corrupt domestic empire.

Arafat held it all very close. He refused to identify a successor and he kept Arab states at bay. Where he saw a threat to independence, others may welcome outside help to secure stability and credibility with Jordan, Egypt, Israel and the United States.

Name a replacement for Arafat? Why bother? The names will only change. Look for a period of violent testing by the likes of Hamas and Palestinian Jihad radicals, but Mideast experts doubt there will be a civil war.

A newly energized White House can hold Palestinians and Israel accountable for peace. British Prime Minister Tony Blair believes it to be the top priority for President Bush in his second term.

Arafat's departure opens a door closed for two generations.