When Yasser Arafat passed away, most Palestinians felt a strange combination of contradicting emotions: anxiety, grief and relief. But, one year after his death, little has changed: the occupation continues and peace is still only a "light at the end of the tunnel."

by Saleh Abdel Jawad

by Daoud Kuttab

More than a week after the sudden passing away of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, we have the opportunity to evaluate the Palestinian scene.

The political situation has suddenly become very fluid. Opportunities for serious progress in the Palestinian quest for statehood have become more evident. Arafat's natural death (as far as we know) might have done a lot to move forward the Palestinian cause, provided the new leadership can take advantage of this new prospect.

Politically, the new leadership proved up to the challenge through the smooth transfer of power within the Palestinian National Authority, the PLO and Fateh. Adherence to the Basic Law (the interim constitution) of the PNA and the internal guidelines of the Fateh movement has proved to be remarkable in efficiency and effectiveness.

by James J. Zogby

There were striking contrasts that could be observed in the US press treatment of the recent passing away of two historic Arab figures: Sheikh Zayed Ben Sultan Al Nahayan, president of the United Arab Emirates, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

While Arafat had been declared irrelevant by the Bush administration and shunned by the US during the past three years, the Palestinian leader's illness and death occupied the front pages of US dailies and endless discussion on network television.

Sheikh Zayed, on the other hand, was a trusted friend and key ally of the US for many decades, a visionary political leader and a humanitarian with an impressive record of relief and reconstruction assistance. His death, nevertheless, received only scant attention in the US newspapers and on television.

While US commentators were befuddled by the outpouring of Palestinian emotion over Arafat, at the same time, a US reviewer of the foreign press appeared not to comprehend why news of Sheikh Zayed's death overshadowed coverage of President George Bush's reelection in most of the Arab world's media.

by Yossi Alpher

By and large, Israelis will not mourn Yasser Arafat. But they should take the time now to reflect on how, under his leadership, the Palestinians got where they are--to world recognition, national pride and the brink of statehood, but also to the depths of the present brutal conflict, with its accompanying humiliation and impoverishment. Arafat, after all, bore a great deal of responsibility for both situations. By the same token, his death could precipitate a major move in either direction: toward reconciliation or toward deterioration; toward great opportunity for Palestinians and Israelis, or great turmoil.

Palestine is entering what can be described as a "revolutionary situation". Arafat's death is liable to release a host of power dynamics that were nurtured beneath the surface for years. It is virtually impossible to predict with any certainty who, if anyone, will come out on top. There is no precedent for an orderly transfer of national authority; Arafat himself only succeeded the Palestinian people's first leader, Haj Amin al Husseini, after a power hiatus of 20 years.

In a worst-case scenario parts of Palestine will resemble Somalia, with Hamas ruling most of Gaza, Fatah dissidents controlling the northern West Bank, and the mainstream PLO in Ramallah. In the most optimistic scenario, the Fatah old guard under Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Ahmed Qurei (Aba Ala) will consolidate their rule and project stability and moderation.

By Marc H. Ellis

Yasser Arafat is dead. He leaves behind him the grief of an as-yet-unrealized nation and the unseemly jockeying for money and power. How successful will those who inherit Palestinian leadership work with Israel? The immediate hope is for a cessation of violence. In the long run, the hope is for a political solution that both sides in this conflict can live with.

The question of where Arafat will be buried has been decided. The Palestinians demanded Jerusalem as the fitting burial location for their national leader, a demand tied to their claim for Jerusalem as the future capital of Palestine. Israel refused Jerusalem as Arafat's burial site for the same reasons that the Palestinians insisted on it: Israel has never recognized a Palestinian national identity and claims Jerusalem as its own.

So Israel has allowed a second choice, Ramallah, where Arafat lived his last years as a virtual prisoner surrounded by Israeli occupation forces. From the Israeli perspective, this is the most likely site for the capital of the future Palestinian state.

Still, for his burial, I wonder if there is another possibility, one that evokes politics even as it acknowledges its limitations, a burial arrangement that recognizes the war between these two peoples ending at the grave and symbolic of the joint destiny of Jews and Palestinians.

By Samia Nasir Khoury

It certainly was a new experience for me to have been in the U.S. during President Bush's reelection. I could not have envisaged the extent of the power of the media there until I read the papers and watched the TV during that period. What bothered me the most was when so-called "moral issues" seemed to have played an important role in such a close fight between the two parties--and I was especially bothered by what was not said or written about that theme.

As a Christian from the Holy Land, the cradle of Christianity, as well as Judaism and Islam, I was unable to relate to those "moral issues" because they actually lacked honesty, truth and justice. How moral is it to wage a war based on false information and in defiance of the international community? How moral is it to support an occupation when all the rhetoric focuses on democracy and the right of people to self-determination? That is why I have the feeling now more than ever that it is hopeless to look to the U.S. administration in search of justice and peace in the Middle East. As long as justice is not a basic "moral value," but going to church and judging others is, it does not necessarily mean that one's faith is being translated into honest and honorable action.

by Ephraim Sneh

The opportunity that has been created with Arafat's death cries out for swift, courageous and intelligent exploitation. The Palestinian leadership that is being formed is in need of concrete achievements and is ready for deeds that were impossible during Arafat's era. In order to end the war and to change the atmosphere, there is need for a practical plan of action with a good chance of success.

The simplest thing to do, a step the success of which will bring about a substantial change in the situation, is a cooperative and coordinated implementation of Israel's exit from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria. In other words - handing over the Gaza Strip to a responsible and functioning Palestinian government.