It is quite interesting to compare Jennifer Miller’s Salon article [view the ad to read the article] on this topic, to a recent New York Times article on the same subject. The Times reporter did not interview even one Palestinian directly, and the article was filled with quotes by Israeli political personalities. Miller does something quite unusual for a U.S. journalist: she let’s us hear the voics of Palestinians speaking for themselves.
“Many people feared Arafat’s death would set the Palestinian people dangerously adrift. He was not simply their national leader, but the symbol of Palestinian nationalism — the embodiment of his people’s aspirations for statehood and the man who brought them recognition from Israel and the world. More than this, Palestinians are a nation besieged by occupation and fractured by internal divisions: between West Bankers and Gazans, Muslims and Christians, insiders and outsiders, refugees and non-refugees, and scores of political factions. Without their keel, their stabilizing force, surely this nation would capsize.”
“Except it hasn’t. Palestinians are looking toward the future with apprehension and even fear, but they are not in shock and they are not adrift. They found themselves without a captain and wasted no time in plotting a course for themselves.”