Yasser Arafat once again promised "reforms" in the Palestinian Authority today - and once again did not provide any specifics as to what this would include. In a special speech from Ramallah, he acknowledged that there had been some mistakes made, saying, "Everyone makes some mistakes."
Arafat praised Moshe Dayan, who was Israel's Defense Minister during the Six-Day War, for taking down the Israeli flag that "Israeli extremists" had placed on the Temple Mount after the war. He then lamented the fact that despite his request to Ehud Barak to similarly respect Moslem "rights" to the Mount, Barak did not do so and instead allowed Ariel Sharon to visit the Temple Mount. Arafat said that this was what precipitated the four years of violence that followed - despite much evidence that the war had been planned long before Sharon's visit.