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"It was a real wake-up call," says a State Department official of the January attack. "We and the Israelis gave him that message very forcefully, and I believe some of his own people delivered it as well." In a tense meeting, says Secretary of State Warren Christopher, he told Arafat, "Look, if you don't meet Israel's security needs, you won't have peace, and you certainly won't have us." In April, Arafat extracted a promise from Hamas to forgo violence until July 1. He also set up special security courts and ordered sweeps in the Gaza Strip that netted hundreds of Islamic activists. The cease-fire held, and the stalled peace talks were able to go forward.
Arafat's success on the security front comes at the expense of human rights, which, according to a recent study by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, are in a "perilous state." The security forces are enormous, made up of the army, the regular police, the border police, the marine police, the regular presidential guard (known as Force 17), the alite praetorian guard, the civil defense force, military intelligence, general intelligence and the so-called preventive security apparatus. Suspects have been tried late at night, without the knowledge of family members or lawyers. So far, two individuals have died in jail, their bodies bearing signs of torture. Authorities have curtailed the free circulation of newspapers from time to time and detained a handful of journalists. Nevertheless, prison officials have allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross access to detainees, and the Palestinian Authority did license Hamas to publish a journal.
By avoiding disaster, Arafat has in his year of governing put an irreversible cast on the peace process and on progress toward true Palestinian independence, and that is surely a signal accomplishment. The Palestinians, however, are wondering what kind of society that independence will bring them. "I need to feel improvements in my daily life," says Nabil Abu Muaileq, a civil engineer in Gaza City, "not just see big leaders on TV talking about it." Hisham Saleh, a butcher in the West Bank city of el-Bireh, pauses from his work and says, "Judging from what's happened in Gaza and Jericho, I expect no improvement in our lives when the Palestinian Authority comes here."
To Saleh, Arafat is "just another Arab head of state, like the others, running a dictatorship, with his own clique surrounding him." Anyway, he adds, "our future is determined by the Israelis and the Americans, who believe the Palestinians should be quiet and not make trouble. Therefore, we are given a little thing and that's it." Saleh, however, is not angry; his voice is dispassionate, matter-of-fact. "We live from day to day," he explains, returning to his counter. "I'm not willing to exhaust my energies awaiting the fulfillment of high hopes." Such resignation may prove the salvation of Arafat. Unable to deliver his people more, he may find comfort in their realization that they must expect less.
--With reporting by Dean Fischer/Washington and Jamil Hamad/Gaza Strip