The 3rd Intifada

Amir Taheri writes today about the 3rd Intifada of the Palestinians. This one is against the Palestinian Authority and Arafat, and is the only one that is actually a popular uprising, as opposed to the previous centrally directed assaults on Israel.

The new intifada, however, represents people who wish to accelerate the Israeli withdrawal and are prepared to make Gaza work.

The new intifada's third aim is to tell the outside world to stop aiding and abetting the confederacy of rogues created by Arafat. The message is especially directed at the European Union, which has been giving Arafat almost a billion euros each year to play with as he pleases.

Arafat has used part of the money to buy support. Whenever faced with a critic, Arafat always asks: How much does he want?

The outside world knows little of the extent of corruption that the Arafat regime has created. It is common knowledge in the Palestinian territories that a dozen or two influential individuals, many of them related to Arafat by blood or marriage, control the economies of Gaza and the West Bank.

However, despite all the anger of Palestinians against Arafat, in most polls he still has fairly high approval ratings.