… trouble had been brewing for a long time. For months before the outbreak of the new intifada, Palestinians had been increasingly critical of Arafat’s failure to achieve results in peace-making with Israel and of the dire state of Palestinian government.
Ever since he assumed power as the chairman of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, Arafat’s rule had been one of total chaos. His ministries were abysmally inefficient, mired by nepotism, over-manning and general cronyism. He has many political qualities, … **ut running government is not among his skills.
Money has been squandered on an operatic scale in the pockets of land that are autonomously ruled by the Palestinian Authority under the 1993 Oslo agreements - the main towns of the West Bank, on 20 per cent of the territory, and 60 per cent of Gaza. Meanwhile, Arafat’s security apparatus became a network of private armies, vying with each other for primacy. interjection: US backed, CIA trained in part funded
Democracy was always only a word to be bandied in front of the cameras. Those who opposed his decision to embark on the road to statehood were arrested by his CIA-trained police. And those who dared to suggest his government was autocratic and venal were threatened, and even jailed.
emphasis added
…
Crucial to Arafat’s survival has been his ability to control the PA chequebook personally, dispensing funds and - until the Israelis locked up the Palestinian population after the start of their uprising - lucrative business contracts with Israel as a means of reinforcing his own powerbase. Israel and the US tacitly endorsed this, believing it helped shore up a compliant Palestinian leadership. Now, with the collapse of Oslo and the renewed explosion of violence, both are leading the chorus of allegations of corruption and demands for reform.
emphasis added
interjection: of course this is all now the EU and the UN’s fault
The corruption sprang up almost the moment Arafat returned in 1994 from exile in Tunis to the Gaza Strip to take control of the newly created Palestinian Authority. … Within months of arriving, however, his senior PLO colleagues were busy building themselves luxury villas on the strip’s sand dunes, a blow to the feelings of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who had lived there in squalor and poverty during the occupation.
Yet Arafat himself, although he uses corruption as a tool to bind people closer to him, has shown little sign of interest in personal wealth since his days in Kuwait as a young man, the founder of the Fatah organisation, when he had a fondness for fast cars and fine clothes. He is personally frugal, neither smoking nor drinking. Those Israelis, including Ariel Sharon, who have heartily wished him dead over the years can take little comfort from his modest lifestyle which, though at times a trifle odd (he pours tea over his cornflakes and spoons Yemeni honey into his tea), are decidedly healthy. The only dash of exotica emerged in 1990, when, out of the blue, he married a tall, green-eyed blonde Christian 30 years his junior; Suha Tawil, who had worked as his assistant. But she removed herself to the quieter climes of Paris many months ago.
interjection: thus my discounting the rather more lurid claims advanced do opportunistically by Israeli intelligence well known for its black ops
Arafat is terrible at delegating, hugging power close to himself and his coterie of favoured aides. Within the PLO there are a number of articulate, young, highly intelligent and educated figures who have long advocated internal reforms and democratisation. They make far more effective advocates of the Palestinian cause than the ranting ministers and grisly security chiefs whom Arafat has allowed to appear on the airwaves. But, until recently, Arafat kept these younger figures in the shadows.