March 12, 2001
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a lecturer in the Arabic Department in Bar Ilan University
and a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, told Arutz-7:
“Arafat’s popularity in the Palestinian Authority is declining
significantly, compared to his popularity at the beginning of the current
intifada. A poll by the PA’s Birzeit University of last month shows that
Arafat now has the support of only 28%. In addition, 38% of the
Palestinian youth are interested in immigrating abroad.
They see that the fruits of the intifada are not exactly what they
expected: it has led to something they dread, namely, a national-unity
government, and not only that, it is headed by their nightmare, Ariel Sharon.
In many areas this intifada has brought them nothing but trouble, and so
they want to send their leaders back to square one. At first the intifada looked
good for them: the Israeli government was giving them more and more
concessions, and PA Security Chief Dahlan said outright that the intifada was
helping the negotiations along – but now these achievements have all gone
down the drain for them…”
Arutz-7’s Haggai Segal noted that IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe
Ya’alon has said that there is no longer a popular intifada, that the
masses are no longer on the streets, and that they have withdrawn their
support for it. Kedar agreed:
“Yes, we can clearly see that this is true. The intifada has died down on
its own, and this is why I think that the government erred in demanding
that Arafat call outright for an end to violence, because it’s happening
anyway and this merely humiliates him, which is something they cannot take.”
As Kedar wrote in HaTzofeh this week, “There is no one in the PA
who can stand up and admit openly that the leadership made a mistake, that
it chose the wrong strategy, for this would bring upon them the worst thing
that a person or group can bring upon themselves in the Arab world: shame.”
