Housing Minister Natan Sharansky, a former long-time Soviet refusenik and currently a member of Israel\'s security cabinet, calls upon the world community to \"strengthen the Palestinians, not Arafat.\" In an article in the Wall Street Journal last week (March 19), Sharansky wrote,
\"In the seven years since the Oslo peace process began, Western and Israeli policymakers have operated on the naive assumption that if Mr. Arafat were provided with enough resources, both territorial and material, he would devote his energies to improving the lives of the Palestinian people and leading them on a path of peace and reconciliation. The need to \'strengthen Arafat\' became axiomatic of diplomatic thinking, even if that meant turning a blind eye to his authoritarianism. This approach was seriously misguided... [T]he seven years since Oslo have seen a deepening of Palestinian hatred towards Israel. Mr. Arafat has mobilized all the resources at his disposal, including his state-run media, to incite and inflame Palestinian passions against Israel...
Mr. Arafat is not the slightest bit concerned with the well-being of his own people... As Minister of Industry and Trade during Benjamin Netanyahu\'s administration, I saw Mr. Arafat reject countless projects that would have bettered the lot of his own people simply because they would have served to decrease tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. He continually spurned my efforts to help the Palestinian Authority establish an industrial park in Gaza that would have encouraged investment in Palestinian areas, created tens of thousands of jobs, and alleviated poverty. Similarly, he rejected a proposal to create joint ventures...\"
\"In the seven years since the Oslo peace process began, Western and Israeli policymakers have operated on the naive assumption that if Mr. Arafat were provided with enough resources, both territorial and material, he would devote his energies to improving the lives of the Palestinian people and leading them on a path of peace and reconciliation. The need to \'strengthen Arafat\' became axiomatic of diplomatic thinking, even if that meant turning a blind eye to his authoritarianism. This approach was seriously misguided... [T]he seven years since Oslo have seen a deepening of Palestinian hatred towards Israel. Mr. Arafat has mobilized all the resources at his disposal, including his state-run media, to incite and inflame Palestinian passions against Israel...
Mr. Arafat is not the slightest bit concerned with the well-being of his own people... As Minister of Industry and Trade during Benjamin Netanyahu\'s administration, I saw Mr. Arafat reject countless projects that would have bettered the lot of his own people simply because they would have served to decrease tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. He continually spurned my efforts to help the Palestinian Authority establish an industrial park in Gaza that would have encouraged investment in Palestinian areas, created tens of thousands of jobs, and alleviated poverty. Similarly, he rejected a proposal to create joint ventures...\"