NEWARK, N.J., Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has reshuffled his cabinet. That is, he has shuffled the same deck, and ended up playing the same cards. But he is holding a busted flush.
For Arafat cannot hope to inspire confidence among his people, Israel, or the World community if he insists on keeping the same bunch of yes men. Arafat does not take criticism well, and he will not permit true reform in his government if that means having to face his failure.
The reason Arafat is still in power is that the old guard he has appointed to positions in his cabinet are making a killing from those posts. They have managed to squirrel away millions from the funding given to the Palestine National Authority throughout the last several years. Their loyalty is conditional on their profit.
Arafat's government is woefully corrupt. The Palestine National Authority was corrupt before it ever became a government. The Palestine Liberation Organization was corrupt in Amman, Beirut, and Tunis. All of the various and sundry Palestinian groups presumably fighting for the liberation of Palestine were profit making enterprises.
A few years ago, I did an interview with Abu Bakr, the number two man in the Abu Nidal Group who defected from Abu Nidal, and is still in hiding even though Abu Nidal is dead. He told me that Abu Nidal had a portfolio of millions earned through extortion and bribes. Abu Nidal he said had a lot of his money invested in the United States. He even owned real estate in Brooklyn.
Arafat really did not have any idea how to run a country, but his old cohorts saw an opportunity to cash in. That is all they wanted. They never really contemplated returning to Palestine, and did not want, or know how, to administer a country.
These people were running a war of terror. They were living quite well in Tunisia and Lebanon. When he returned to the Palestinian territories, Arafat conceded his authority to Hezbollah and Hamas. He made a deal with these groups in order to be able to appear in control in the West Bank and Gaza.
As a result, Hamas and Hezbollah own the Palestinian territories. They had a little business on the side too. They stole cars in Israel, or they used to before the areas were sealed off, and sold them in Gaza and the West Bank. They are allegedly involved in drug trafficking inside Israel along with the Israel Russian Mob. The Israeli Russian Mob sells the radical Palestinian groups weapons, and explosives.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon knows Arafat cannot control the suicide bombings. He knows Hamas and Hezbollah are planning and executing them. He cannot stop them because he cannot reach them. They are buried deep within the territories hidden in the twisting alleys of the cities under layers of Palestinian civilians.
Sharon wants to convince Israelis, and for that matter the Americans, that Arafat is behind the suicide bombings because he can reach Arafat. He does not want to appear ineffectual and he does not want the Israeli army to appear ineffectual.
When the bombers strike, Sharon tries to reduce the buildings in Arafat's headquarters complex to gravel. It is political stagecraft by Sharon to convince the Israeli public he is not losing. But he is losing. There has been a terrible loss of life so far, and the end is nowhere in sight.
The radical Mullahs who run these groups pervert Islam, and order the faithful to kill and maim innocents. However, this is a radical aberration from traditional Islam. Islam in all its history never schooled its disciples in murder and terror until now.
The Mullahs want Israel to respond in kind to these attacks. They hope that Muslims everywhere will see the Israel Army devastating the West Bank and Gaza. Each brutal Israeli response drives more young men and women to the fanatical Mullahs.
We compound the rage of Muslims by our threats against Iraq. We ignore the dilemma of the Palestinians, fail to intervene to stop the killing there, and by random exponential, make matters worse by making it very clear that we are going to invade Iraq.
The Palestinians no longer matter much in Washington. The Bush administration has allowed Israel to deal with them as they wish. Israel has re-occupied the territories and will remain there until they rid themselves of the Mullahs. That will be a brutal undertaking, but they will do it because they have to. And not just for the sake of Israel. It may be the only hope for the Palestinians.
It seems cruel to say, but the Palestinians cannot seem to bring themselves to the realization that their battle is over and they have lost. They have to settle for what they can get, or they will get nothing.
The truth is that it now seems the Arab world is an irritant. They may have tentatively supported the Palestinians, but they would never make any great sacrifices for them.
The vastly wealthy oil producing nations do not give generously to the Palestinians. They have never done much to relieve the dismal poverty of Gaza or the West Bank. A little for appearance, but nothing of substance.
The Arabs have always used the Palestinians for their domestic political purposes and to bully the United States a little. That is going to change. The Palestinians are no longer a part of the equation in the Middle East.
The administration seems not to care very much, about how the Arab world will react to our plans to invade Iraq. In fact, the administration does not seem to care very much about the Arab world period.
We may be nice to Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, we ignore Syria, but give a little nod to Iran. We have made it clear to them that we do not need them to get rid of Saddam. Over the last, several years we have made other alliances in their world. We will use those others without the baggage that was always demanded by our friends. What can they really do after all?
We are witness to a new order of things. We, the United States, are going to get rid of whomever we see as bad guys. We will just get rid of them. We have to do this because things do not work the way they used to, and because we can.
The Bush administration simply believes that we can rid ourselves finally of the vexing problem of the Middle East. We are the Hammer of Thor. We are going to bring peace and justice, our way. Pax Americana like it or not. What can Arafat and his busted flush do to prevent that?
-- Morgan Strong is a journalist and consultant on the Middle East for "60 Minutes" and others, and is a former professor of Middle Eastern History at Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.)
-- "Outside View" commentaries are written for UPI by outside writers who specialize in a variety of important global issues
