Tuesday deadline pressures Arafat

From wire reports

JERUSALEM -- Israel planted its flag in Yasser Arafat's compound Saturday, and shell bursts shook his offices, chipping away at the building in an ever-tightening siege designed to make the Palestinian leader surrender militants or leave into exile.

Soldiers with loudspeakers in the evening shouted to the estimated 200 people holed up in Arafat's offices to evacuate the building or else troops would blow up the building.

Israel has insisted that it does not aim to harm Arafat even as it has torn his command center down around him over the past three days, and it appeared unlikely troops would carry out the threat.

Earlier Saturday, Arafat appealed to Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israel but refused to hand over 20 wanted members of his entourage.

Five explosions rocked the compound Saturday, and aides said there was concern Arafat's building might collapse.

The Israeli tanks battering Arafat's compund drew attention away from a different kind of challenge to the Palestinian leader -- a demand from his own people for a sweeping change in the way he governs them.

A Tuesday deadline looms for Arafat to name a new cabinet for his Palestinian Authority, after a Sept. 10 constitutional crisis led the 21-member body to resign en masse, under orders from Arafat, rather than face a certain vote of no confidence from the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Warning to shape up

The parliament, in an unprecedented rebellion, expressed its exasperation and impatience with the Intifada violence now entering its third year and its disgust at the inefficiency and corruption of Arafat's administration.

In so doing, it also gave its ultimate leader an ultimatum: Shape up your government, or we'll slam-dunk all of you.

"If Arafat comes back with the same names, the PLC will absolutely reject them. They feel empowered now. They feel joyful that they could stand up in Arafat's face and force him to get the cabinet to resign. They are having fun with it," said Nader Said, a Palestinian sociologist and pollster on the faculty of Birzeit University. "Wow, this is nice."

Palestinians attributed their newfound willingness to criticize their leader to the growth of democracy in their parliament, despite Arafat's iron-fisted rule, and a sense of urgency brought on by two years of violent conflict with Israel.

A legislative council member, Hatem Abdulqader, said: "We need a new government, a small government, a professional government. We need to change the style, the policy, the concepts, the faces." But, said Abdulqader, 48, who has been a council member since 1996, "the situation on the ground right now means Arafat probably can't meet the deadline."

It's unclear whether Arafat will seek an extension -- or whether the legislative council would be inclined to grant one.

Danny Rubinstein, a veteran Arab affairs writer for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, said celebrations of Palestinian democracy might be premature.

"The main problem hindering the development of Palestinian democracy is the traditional nature of society in the West Bank and Gaza," Rubinstein wrote Wednesday. "It is a society with tribal elements, where extended family (the "hamula," or clan) still represents the main focus of power. ... In such a traditional society, it is difficult to apply principles of Western democracy that are based on the independent rights of each and every individual."

Palestinian analysts say the United States, in encouraging changes in the Palestinian Authority, needs to tread lightly.

"If the Americans want to think that this is taking place only because of their pressure, they are very much mistaken," Said said. "In fact, the American role and their interference in this process is detrimental to a democratic transition. If it looks like it's being dictated by America, it has to be resisted."

For the moment, however, it is safe to say that a new sense of its power has galvanized the Palestinian parliament.

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Yasser Arafat.