New Left Review has posted an essay by Edward Said in which he calls for the departure of Yasser Arafat from the leadership of the Palestinian movement.
An excerpt: 'We have to say clearly that with Arafat and
company in command, there is no hope. What kind of a leader is this, who has spent the last year
grotesquely fetching up in the Vatican and Lagos and other miscellaneous places, pleading without dignity
or even intelligence for imaginary observers, Arab aid, international support, instead of staying with his
people, and trying to aid them with medical supplies, practical organization and real leadership? What the
Palestinians need are leaders who are really with and of their people, who are actually doing the resisting
on the ground, not fat cigar-chomping bureaucrats bent on preserving their business deals and renewing
their VIP passes, who have lost all trace of decency or credibility. '
