Arafat's Evanescent Legacy

Captain's Quarters has a nice summary of how Palestinian presedential candidate Mahmoud Abbas' statement calling the Intifada "a mistake" is a positive sign for the future, and how it shows that some parts of the Palestinian leadership are moving away from the legacy of Arafat's terror policies.

Abbas would not have dared to give a contradictory policy statement like this to any newspaper, let alone a Western-based publication, while Arafat was alive. The statement appears to acknowledge the dead end towards which the old terrorist led the Palestinians over the past ten or more years.

Of course, who knows whether Abbas is ascendant in Palestinian politics, or even whether he really means what he says?