Month: September 2002

The time was almost midnight on September 20th when a number of the satellite stations interrupted their regular programming to announce that Israeli soldiers had warned Palestinians living near Arafat’s headquarters that the building would be blown up in 15 minutes if those inside it didn’t come out.

Perhaps one should not give too much weight to the off-the-cuff remarks made by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat during his speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council, but its importance should not be overlooked either. When he came to the paragraph about the independence of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, Arafat diverted from the prepared…