Yasser Arafat's decision to place six Palestinians under the control of American and British jailers in return for his personal release from captivity is getting mixed reviews on the Palestinian "street."
But the Palestinian Authority's main mistake reaches deeper than tactical missteps of this sort. Far more serious, it is pursuing a failed strategy against Israel. Nor does it seem to realize the damage it is doing to its goals. This strategic error eventually will cost the Palestinians their fight against Israel.
The current round of fighting--what I call the Palestinian-Israeli war--began in September 2000, four months after Arafat and his colleagues witnessed how steady violence against Israeli troops in Lebanon had demoralized the Israeli body politic and led to a sudden and total evacuation of Israeli forces from Lebanon.
Impressed by what the Lebanese had achieved, Arafat began a copycat effort aimed at destroying Israel by demoralizing its population, causing the Jews to flee the country, plead for terms and eventually capitulate.
This strategy initially worked. On Oct. 7, 2000, the Israelis retreated from Joseph's Tomb, a Jewish holy site in Nablus, after their forces came under fire from a street rabble. On capturing the site, Palestinians desecrated Hebrew texts. They felt understandably exultant, for they had defeated the mighty Israel Defense Forces.
Although it certainly looked like Israel was sliding into defeat, a remarkable thing happened: a profound change in mood. Israelis came to realize that they were fighting for their survival. Lebanon was just a means to defend Israel and could be given up, but Israel itself had to be fought for.
A people who just months before had insisted on ending the conflict now accepted the need to fight on. A divided people became united. A dispirited population became mobilized. They overwhelmingly voted for a new and tougher government led by Ariel Sharon.
Palestinians, however, did not see this change. Unaware of the effect of their hammering away at Israelis, they kept up an assault of suicide bombers and snipers. In a mood of exuberance, the Palestinians barely noticed what damage they were doing to their cause. The killing of Israel's tourism minister last October, for example, caused Sharon to harden his position against Arafat and not accept him as a negotiating partner.
