has launched an attack on Iraq which will set a precedent for the rest of the world - that invading other countries you think might attack you in the future is fine, which prompted India to threaten a war against Pakistan if necessary. As you may imagine, this has not done anything to help peace in the Middle East. Most of the Arab world believes Israel dictates U.S. policy in the Middle East, and that while they promise peace they still don't mean it. We are hoping to reach an agreement, as always, but have doubts that Israel will keep their word.
At the conference, one development which I believe to be a mistake was that the Arab world formed the United Arab Alliance. This was denounced as a terrorist alliance because countries that were enemies of the U.S. - and Israel - were members, such as Iraq. While Iraq eventually left, the UAA in my eyes is a failure because threats were used which have never been successful for us. Stopping oil shipments to some nations only hurt the profits of some nations because oil is available elsewhere and only made everyone look like a villain. However, we will go through different trials in our efforts to reach an agreement with Israel if it is at all possible. I, Saeb Erekat (Palestinian negotiator), felt like I had some input in the conference but in retrospect I don't know if my words will have any more of an impact than they did in the past. Or ultimate goal is getting our own state and ending the occupation of the IDF, and some things discussed were how to stop suicide bombers from continuing to attack Israel. Arafat has been denounced as essentially being a terrorist, a claim which has no basis whatsoever, and while a new Prime Minister has been elected the presence of Arafat still bothers the Israeli side. We are trying ways to make it appear that Arafat is completely out of the picture as far as negotiations go, which is basically true, so we can continue talks.
