I never thought I would live to see Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn. And now that I have, I’m ready to reconsider the merits of longevity. I was there Monday when Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin shook hands. Unlike the peace activists, I did not cheer. Unlike the Hollywood contingent, I did not cry. I did not feel wonder. I felt only anxiety. Looking at Arafat, I longed to see Anwar Sadat.
Sadat was a man of vision and resolution. Arafat is a schemer, a broker, a political thug. He came with one purpose: to transform himself into a statesman and visionary. I have my doubts.
And on the White House lawn, Arafat did nothing to dispel them, or those of others who fear this is but another in a lifetime of tactical maneuvers. He said nothing to dispel the suspicion that his piece of paper promising peace will go the way of every promise he has made-from the Cairo agreement of 1969 (which promised Lebanon peace if it would let him run a Palestinian state-within-a-state in southern Lebanon) to the “renunciation of terrorism” George Shultz coaxed out of him in 1988.
I know that in the brave new world that dawned Monday noon one is not supposed to bring up the past. A new page of history is turned, and we are supposed to believe that everything has changed.
Has it? Did anyone actually listen to Arafat’s speech? Here was his great chance in front of the whole world to tell Israel as plainly as Yitzhak Rabin had just told the Palestinians (and, for that matter, Sadat had said in Jerusalem): We accept you, we welcome you as neighbors, we want to live together in peace. Instead, Arafat said nothing about recognizing Israel. Nothing about stopping terrorism. Nothing about ending the intifada. He spoke only of his future hopes and further demands for getting more than he has been given now.
It was a sorry performance. One American official said to me as we left the White House grounds, “Arafat missed his chance.” He attributed this to Arafat’s weakness and the need to please his recalcitrant constituencies. I hope he is right, but this has always been the explanation for Arafat’s backsliding and lies. There is, however, a darker and more plausible explanation: He doesn’t mean it.
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Last week, for example, when Yitzhak Rabin signed the letter recognizing the PLO in Jerusalem, he did it on live television. He wanted his people to see it. When Arafat signed his letter to Rabin recognizing Israel, he did so behind closed doors.
Why is this important? Because this whole peace adventure hinges on the PLO having really changed, not on its signing pieces of paper. It requires that Arafat begin to undo 50 years of vicious anti-Israel propaganda and tell his people plainly that Israel has a right to exist. It requires that Arafat tell them plainly that the fighting must stop.
Instead, throughout his triumphal tour, Arafat danced away from saying what needed to be said. On Tuesday, for example, he was asked: “Why don’t you clearly call on Hamas and other Palestinians to stop their attacks on the Israelis?”
“I have done it. And this, I have signed it,” replied Arafat, refusing to make a simple forthright statement such as: “I ask my people to stop killing Israelis.” Instead, this: “The accurate implementation of this agreement will defuse the causes of . . . violence.” Meaning: Give me what I demand (“accurate implementation”) and there will be no further need to knife Israeli bus drivers.
This is exactly how the “old Arafat” handled such questions: bobbing, weaving, maneuvering. This verbal slipperiness was lost on the American media which have the historical memory of a newt. They were transfixed instead by The Handshake. Through misty eyes, they interpreted it as a sign of friendship, when for Arafat it was clearly a means of achieving instant equality of stature with two major heads of state, Rabin and Clinton.
The euphoria that has swept Washington in the last week-fawning senators asking Arafat for his autograph-was embarrassing. This is a very tentative pact based on very large promises made by very unreliable people. Yes, it might work. But Arafat’s Washington performance-forget his history-does not inspire confidence.
Here is the “new Arafat” at the National Press Club, 24 hours after the cosmic handshake:
Q: “The Jewish people have not felt that they could trust you to keep your word. Why has this changed? And why should they trust you now?”
A: “Many didn’t trust Jesus Christ in the beginning.” (Applause.)
Think about that.