Dina Ezzat assembles the unofficial Arab reaction to Arafat's death Relief is perhaps the best way to describe the private reaction of most Arab officials to the sudden and somewhat ambiguous death of Yasser Arafat, the icon of the Palestinian struggle for the past 40 years. In public, before their own constituencies, these same officials laid on what they felt obliged to provide: a red carpet funeral. Most major Arab leaders and senior representatives were on hand in Cairo to pay their last, and somewhat belated respects to a man they had largely forgotten during his nearly three-year siege in Ramallah. But beyond the honours of a brief state funeral, Arafat received very little recognition from his fellow Arab leaders. Official statements eulogising the Palestinian leader sounded more like a simple notification of another death, rather than any genuine outpouring of grief at the loss of a revolutionary hero. At the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League, a two-hour ceremony was held to collectively eulogise Arafat, in response to a request circulated by the Palestinian permanent mission in Cairo and strongly supported by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. But once the ceremonies had ended, there was hardly any further mention of him. Instead, Arab capitals began talking about the need to "capture the moment" and "seize the opportunity" to get the US to start moving on the Palestinian-Israeli front. In addition, papers are already being drafted in at least a couple of Arab capitals to be presented at a Barcelona process foreign ministers' meeting in The Netherlands, the current rotating chair of the European Union, in the hope of instilling new momentum into the peace process. In a syndicated article, "Arafat left, leaving the Palestinians with an ever vivid dream of independence", run by the Saudi-owned, London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, King Abdullah of Jordan, who was known to have an uneasy relationship with Arafat, as did his late father King Hussein, described the death of the PLO leader as "a new chance for peace". Speaking on condition of anonymity, certain Arab diplomats, in particular those from countries with direct borders with the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, were explicit in expressing their relief at the death of Arafat. For them, his passing marks the end to the presumptuous obstacles that the Palestinian leader had thrown up on the road to a settlement with Israel, largely for the sake of his own glory. Some see his death as heralding an end to the oppressive control that he had exercised over the Palestinian resistance movements, including Hamas and Jihad. Other diplomats are breathing a sigh of relief at the demise of a leader they considered too self-centred to really care about the misfortunes of his own people. In six interviews conducted by Al-Ahram Weekly since Arafat's death, there was not a single word of sorrow expressed by any Arab diplomatic source. Indeed, for many, Arafat's death would seem to mark not an end, but a new beginning. This sentiment was also expressed by some Palestinians, who were known for their opposition to Arafat's authoritarian style of rule. "It is understandable, in a way, that Arab leaders work in a totalitarian manner," one Palestinian source said. "They are leaders with states. But Arafat was not a leader with a state; he was the leader of an independence movement." According to the source, at one point Arafat seemed even to wish to fool himself, claiming that he was a true "Arab president" in order to be received at the White House. Given the dominance of such perceptions in diplomatic circles, it is hardly surprising that Arafat's passing has been an occasion for a general sigh of relief. "He thought he could keep on playing his games of saying 'yes' to one person and 'no' to another over the same offer," one diplomatic source said. "He thought he could be the leader of the Intifada and the leader of the peace treaties at the same time. That was impossible. That was the reason that in the end, nobody was willing to burn his fingers for him, because we all knew his real game." "We believe that now we can move on," another diplomat said. "The Americans have often said they do not want to deal with Arafat and that Arafat has to be out of the picture for Washington to start seriously pressuring the Israelis. Now we are telling Washington that Arafat is out of the picture and that it should start talking to the Israelis. We are also saying the same thing to the Israelis." However, not everyone believes the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be reduced to a problem of personal failures. "Arafat was not the obstacle to Palestinian-Israeli peace," Amr Moussa said. "It is the lack of political will on the Israeli side that has been hindering peace, and without political will and the US playing the role of honest broker, peace will remain elusive in the Middle East." Some Arab diplomats agree with Moussa up to a certain point, saying that while it was true that Israel lacked political will, and that the current US administration has shown very little sympathy for the Arabs, if any, Arafat's policies also contributed to the problem by playing straight into the hands of the right-wing in Israel and the neo-cons in the US. Judging by the reluctance of US President George Bush to commit himself to working on the Palestinian-Israeli front, it might seem unrealistic to expect Arafat's death to revive the negotiating process -- let alone, mark the beginning of the end for a 50-year-plus conflict. Still, several Arab capitals clearly believe that Arafat's death may not be all bad news. The Palestinians, some argue, may now be able to recapture the Arab sympathy that they need so much, and which has been largely denied them over the past years. "There was a US veto on Arafat, and most Arab capitals had to worry about their ties with the US, so they did not want to violate this veto," one senior Arab official commented. The same goes for European diplomacy, which frowned upon Arafat's failure to deliver on political reform and financial accountability. Moreover, some say that with the death of Arafat, the Palestinians should now be able to re-establish ties with Kuwait, once one of the most generous financial donors to their cause but which had dramatically reduced its assistance in the wake of the Palestinian leadership's support for the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. This may also apply to other oil-rich Arab Gulf countries, whose financial donations to the Palestinians have dwindled over the past few years as a direct result of their disappointment at the many allegations of financial corruption and mismanagement. Most Arab diplomats who spoke to the Weekly also agree that the biggest problem now facing the Palestinians are likely to be internal ones. "The situation is too complicated," said one Arab diplomat, "and Arafat, whether we liked him or not, was the only leader who could control the situation. Now, despite all the Arab and foreign support that the new leadership may get, there are no guarantees that it will be able to keep the situation under control." Some Arab capitals, including Amman and Cairo, believe it is time to seize the moment and hold the Americans to their word. Others, including Damascus and Beirut, argue instead that the opportunity to return to a collective approach in handling the Arab-Israeli conflict is too valuable to miss. Jordan and Egypt seem to be mainly preoccupied with securing their own borders with Israel, with which they both have peace deals, and containing Palestinian frustration over political and economic disappointments. This holds especially true for Jordan, which has a considerable Palestinian population. Lebanon and Syria, meanwhile, still have Israeli troops occupying part of their lands, and so have their eye on collecting bargaining chips. "The trouble is that the Arabs in general are not just tired of Arafat but of the Palestinian problem itself," commented one Arab diplomat. "They want an end to it, and they believe they will be forced to settle for a realistic solution -- that is, for less than the 1967 borders." Additional reporting by Magda El-Ghitany
