Arafat’s journey, an epochal event in Mideast history, was in fact yet another whistle-stop on his perpetual road to somewhere else. And that fact – he was to leave Jericho Monday or Tuesday for a summit this week with Israeli leaders in Paris – gave the drama a sense of anticlimax. “He wants to go to Paris from his homeland,” said one aide in an attempt to explain an itinerary that Arafat announced only three days ahead of time, astonishing even his top aides. “He wants to feel he is leading his people.” That is in fact the question that haunts Arafat’s return: is he the right leader of the Palestinian people, or simply the only one? Is Arafat ready to get down to business? “A lot of people are waiting for him to actually move from Tunis to Jericho,” said Edward Said, a Palestinian intellectual who opposes the autonomy deal with Israel. “Then his real problems will begin.”
One reason Arafat stalled his return was the fear he’d come back empty-handed – and essentially he did. Aides say he feels betrayed by Western donors, who’ve coughed up less money, and more slowly, than he’d hoped. And the royalty of the Persian Gulf, which used to bankroll Arafat in grand style, now seems to have lost interest. Of $2.2 billion pledged in international aid, less than $150 million comes from Arabs. Like most donors, they are looking for some way to give the money to the Palestinian National Authority, of which Arafat is president, without actually giving it to him for patronage. In other words, donors, too, are on the fence about Arafat. And some prosperous members of the Palestinian diaspora who have returned to help build a nation are openly dubious about Arafat’s management skills. Few steps have been taken to encourage investment and the kind of economic growth that’s needed to keep the streets quiet.
Virtually all Arafat brought with him was his oratory. “We have a big mission ahead of us to rebuild this homeland . . . that Israeli occupation destroyed,” he said. To Islamic fundamentalists, he appealed for “national unity.” And, defying Jewish protesters, Arafat pledged to pray in Jerusalem – though he didn’t say when. Millions of Palestinians must have felt their spirits lift. But one televised moment of one man’s return to Gaza doesn’t begin to solve the problems of those who must live there.
