Now it is Yasser Arafat who is being told to reject any compromise. Unwilling to accept half a loaf, or rather 90 percent of the loaf, Arab zealots may yet succeed in losing all of Palestine. The greatest threat to Palestinian aspirations at Camp David is not the Israelis, but the counsel of fire-eaters like those masterminds just outside its gates. They never seem to learn. Each Arab defeat breeds more zealotry, which is the nature of defeat.
Peace is so dull, so long-range, so constructive.
It can't have the same appeal to a great people with nomadic roots and a storied history. Such a people will always produce its share of romantics with eyes so fixed on the past they cannot cope with the challenge of the present. No wonder they're hooked on defeat. The occasional Arab leader who is sufficiently far-sighted to negotiate with the Jewish state, like Egypt's Anwar Sadat or Jordan's King Abdullah, risks the assassin's bullet. Yasser Arafat's security team needs to be on guard.