MIDDLE EAST: For the Chief-of-Staff of the Israeli army, Lieut Gen Shaul Mofaz, the failure of US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell's mediating mission is no surprise. David Horovitz reports from Jerusalem
In a Hebrew press interview ahead of Israel's 54th Independence Day yesterday, Gen Mofaz was unequivocal: Neither Mr Powell nor any other would-be Middle East peacemaker would succeed so long as Mr Yasser Arafat was leading the Palestinian Authority.
Mr Arafat "uses terrorism against us, and under his leadership we will never reach an accord", the chief-of-staff said. "Eventually the Palestinian leadership will realise that he is the obstacle. I'm convinced they'll kick him out. History is full of people who were apparently irreplaceable, until they were replaced."
Two weeks ago, in the early days of Israel's "Operation Defensive Shield", Gen Mofaz pushed publicly for Mr Arafat to be deported - the kind of demand that has seen him labelled as a "right-winger". Yet Gen Mofaz's characterisation of Mr Arafat as an unreformed and unreformable terrorist is endorsed not only on the right of the Israeli political spectrum, but across the centre and into the left as well. The escalating pace of suicide attacks and, over the last two weeks, the army's presentation of captured documents purportedly proving that Mr Arafat has directly funded them, have destroyed mainstream Israel's faith in the Palestinian leader.
Also in the early days of this unprecedented military operation, Gen Mofaz and his Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, said it was designed to "uproot" Mr Arafat's "infrastructure of terror".
And as they marked a highly uncertain Independence Day yesterday - staying away from public places in droves, having to be reassured in regular radio broadcasts that the explosions they were hearing were festive fireworks rather than bombs - Israelis may have been grateful for the relative lull that has seen "only" two major bombings since the army moved into the West Bank.
But as the Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, declared yesterday they know that there is "no military solution" to the conflict, and that this fall-off will likely be temporary.
Though the leader of the moderate Labour Party in Mr Sharon's coalition, Mr Ben-Eliezer offers the identical assessment to Mr Sharon and Gen Mofaz of Mr Arafat: that nothing will change for the better so long as he is around. The Palestinian leader, Mr Ben-Eliezer has been saying for weeks, "has nothing more to offer".
The Palestinians, the Arab world, and much of the international community are attributing the failure of Mr Powell's mission to Israel's refusal to smartly obey President Bush and withdraw its troops. But Israel's leaders and most of the public are united in blaming the failure on Mr Arafat - or, more specifically, on Mr Powell's decision to meet, and thus rehabilitate the Palestinian leader, rather than ignoring him and thus, hopefully, accelerating his demise.
Mr Powell said yesterday, of course, that he'd had no choice: Mr Arafat "holds the office of president of the Palestinian Authority. So whether one approves of that or disapproves, it is a reality."
Mr Sharon has thought seriously about sending Mr Arafat into exile - but, despite Gen Mofaz's enthusiasm, was restrained by intelligence chiefs and Labour leaders. The Prime Minister is only too aware that, besieged in Ramallah, Mr Arafat's popularity among his people is at new heights, that internal Palestinian criticism of corruption in his regime has been quelled, and that the few Palestinian voices that blamed him for refusing peace terms offered by the previous Israeli government have been silenced.