Arab summit strengthens Palestinian President's hand

JERUSALEM - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has emerged strengthened at home and in the Middle East by an Arab summit that accused Israel of "barbarism" in fighting in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say analysts.

They said Arafat achieved his main aim of rallying the support of all Arab leaders, who are under pressure from an angry public to take a stronger stand against Israel and are worried that the violence could spread in the Middle East.

"But the question is whether Arafat will exploit this rare popularity and strength to achieve political gains for the Palestinian people," said Palestinian political analyst Ghassan al-Khatib.

"To achieve political gains Arafat has to make sure the ... objective is ending occupation by implementing UN resolution 242," Khatib said. "Furthermore the United States should not monopolise the peace process."

But the word on the Palestinian streets yesterday was that the two-day emergency summit in Cairo did not go far enough in confronting Israel after nearly three weeks of violence.

In a Gaza refugee camp, where hundreds mourned the death of a 14-year-old youth in a clash with Israeli forces at the weekend, the mood was especially bitter.

"The summit is a failure. The summit is a failure," the crowd chanted, demanding action against Israel, not words.

The Arab leaders affirmed a commitment to peacemaking and stopped short of calling on Egypt and Jordan, which both have peace treaties with Israel, to cut ties with the Jewish state.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, who attended the Cairo meeting, said the summit's decisions showed Israel and the rest of the world that Palestinian red lines in the peace process were also Arab red lines.

The meeting had managed to mend Arafat's ties with Arab adversaries such as Kuwait, which was angered by his support of Iraq after its 1990 invasion of the emirate.

Some Palestinian and Israeli analysts agreed that the intifada or uprising in the West Bank and Gaza had boosted Arafat's popularity at home and in the Arab world.

The bloodshed, which was feeding the mounting Palestinian anger, put Arafat at the head of a national war of independence, the analysts said.

Israeli analyst Menachem Klein said: "Barak refuses to see that as the Army kills more and more Palestinians, including many children, the Palestinians' anger increases, and he can't see that this is a war against occupation, it's a war of independence."

- REUTERS

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