The Observer A disaster is unfolding for the Palestinian people.
Economic life is almost at a standstill, freedom of movement almost impossible.
The Palestinian Authority of Yasser Arafat faces bankruptcy while Palestinian fatalities climb daily. Mr Arafat's lieutenants were predicting the crisis would soon be over, ushering in the creation of a Palestinian state with its capital in Arab East Jerusalem and allowing the return of Palestinian refugees. Instead, six months after the intifada started, the reverse has happened. In snubbing the efforts of President Clinton to mediate a final deal in his last days in office, Mr Arafat threw away a decade of gains for the Palestinian people under the Oslo peace process. Meanwhile, the scale of the Palestinian state the new Israeli government says it can accept has shrunk from 97 per cent of the Occupied Territories that was on offer initially to an emasculated 42 per cent now.