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Washington director. "One of the
important turning points was in
November. After considerable pressure
from the Arabs for the U.S. to become
more involved, (Secretary of State Colin)
Powell made his speech in Louisville,
and the president followed with his
statement at the U.N. about Palestinian
statehood." Also in response to Arab
demands, Powell appointed a new spe-
cial Mideast envoy, Anthony Zinni.
"But then, almost immediately, the
administration was embarrassed by a
series of terror attacks initiated by the
Palestinians," Hordes said.
Israel's interception of the Karine A, a
freighter full of Iranian arms headed for
Gaza, was the last straw.
The result is more than just a change
in U.S. tactics for winning a cease fire.
"A fundamental shift has taken
place," said Daniel Pipes, president of
the Philadelphia-based Middle East
Forum think-tank. "The suicide bomb-
ings of early December and the Karine
A affair transformed the Arab-Israeli
conflict from something 'out there' to
an integral part of the administration's
war against terrorism."
Increasingly, the administration views
Arafat's actions as one more symptom
of the worldwide terror scourge it is
committed to fighting.
"We've crossed a real line," he said.
"Bush has been remarkably consistent
about making the war on terror his top
priority, much more than I expected;
these other ongoing problems are now
being folded into that."
David Harris, executive director of
the American Jewish Committee, said
Arafat's actions have placed him on the
wrong side of the line that defines U.S.
foreign policy in the post-Sept. 11
world.
"This administration has said from
the outset that they wouldn't make false
distinctions between 'good terrorism'
and 'bad terrorism,'" he said. "They're
sticking by their word."
Arafat, he said, has "complicated the
administration's life since Sept. 11;
instead of trying to quiet the region, he
has just inflamed it."
Harris and others said that the quan-
tum policy leap may make Washington
more resistant to pressure from friendly
Arab states and from European allies.
That pressure was apparent this week
as the European Union, defying
Washington's effort to isolate Arafat,
declared that "Israel needs the
Palestinian Authority and its elected
president, Yasser Arafat, as a partner to
negotiate with, both in order to eradi-
cate terrorism and to work towards
peace." The same message has been

delivered by a number of top Arab
leaders who are angry about
Washington's shunning of Arafat.
Harris warned that it's too early to
judge whether Washington will be able
to resist that pressure.
But this week, there were indications
the administration is holding firm.
On Tuesday, the White House dis-
missed Saudi complaints about the
administration's treatment of Arafat and
its apparent tilt toward Israel.
"The United States will continue to
adhere to the policy that it thinks is in
the best interests of peace and stability
in the region," White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Washington also quickly rejected as
insufficient Arafat's arrest of Fuad al-
Shobaki, a PA finance official implicat-
ed in the recent arms smuggling
scheme. "There have been arrests made
before where just as soon as people
were arrested, they were let out through
the back door of the jail cell," Fleischer
said.
The new perspective in Washington
may increase Arafat's isolation and
widen Ariel Sharon's latitude for apply-
ing military pressure. But few observers
expect the administration to cut off
Arafat entirely — or work for his
ouster.
"Arafat's actions have been distress-
ing," said former U.S. Rep. Lee
Hamilton, D-Ind., who now heads the
Wilson Center. "But the administration
understands that breaking ties with
Arafat will not help the peace process;
it will make it more difficult."
Hamilton, who once chaired the
House International Relations
Committee, said Arafat "brought much
of the mess on himself by talking about
peace while acquiescing or encouraging
violence by the Palestinians. But he is
the embodiment of the Palestinian
movement; he still is their legitimate
leader. The administration seems to
understand there is nothing to be
gained by actually rejecting him."
Not all analysts applauded the sharp
shift in U.S. policy.
Henry Siegman, Mideast director for
the Council on Foreign Relations, said
that a combination of personal aversion
to Arafat and a series of diplomatic
shocks has generated a profound
change in U.S. policy that could "lead
to a dynamic that could be the undoing
of Israel. To encourage Israeli counter-
measures and revenge killings, without
offering Palestinians a way out, is a pre-
scription for a descent into the
lebanonization' of the entire area —
from Gaza and the West Bank to Tel
Aviv." ❑

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