Remember the myth that Arafat was unable prevent terrorism because he did not have control over Hamas?
Straight from the (other) horse’s mouth, Mahmoud al-Zahar:
“Arafat instructed Hamas to carry out a number of military operations in the heart of the Jewish state after he felt that his negotiations with the Israeli government then had failed.”
Failure, of course, is a relative term. In this case, Arafat likely considered failure to be anything less than could be squeezed out of Barak at the negotiating table.
Unfortunately, he did not miscalculate too badly.
This post is dedicated to NG.
I am so honored and so thrilled that you’re writing!