Condi Rice committed the gravest diplomatic sin of ignoring Arafat’s grave:

Unlike a long line of other leaders who paid some kind of homage to Arafat’s grave at the entrance to the Mukata, when visiting PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Rice’s car simply pulled into the compound, passed the grave and Rice got out and walked into the building.

On the way out, she also made no acknowledgment of the grave, unlike other leaders, like EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana who laid a wreath or British Prime Minister Tony Blair who walked by and nodded.

History will record that the major (in fact only) contribution that Yasser Arafat ever made to peace in the Middle East was shuffling off this mortal coil. He didn’t do it willingly, of course, but still, credit where credit’s due.