Some of the Palestinians have had it with Arafat. The Israeli campaign may have finally tilled the soil for something better.

“It is not a question of challenging Arafat’s leadership. It is a question of telling him that the PA cannot be run the way it has been up to now. If we are to have national institutions, they must be run professionally. If there is to be armed resistance, it must be against soldiers and settlers in the occupied territories. We must stop all attacks against civilians in Israel. And if we are to have peace with Israel, we must convey the message that our struggle is not against its existence as a state. We accept its existence. It is against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This we will never accept.” Will Arafat heed her message? “I hope so,” she says…

But as he trawled around Ramallah on Thursday, Arafat was surrounded by the same cronies and signalled the same conflicting messages: now vowing “peace with the Israelis”, now promising “1,000 martyrs to liberate Jerusalem”. And everywhere he flashed V-for-victory salutes.

“Lord spare any more such victories,” said a former Palestinian negotiator. “We really don’t need any more victory celebrations. We need the wisdom of the defeated.”