YASSER IS FREE (YAWN)

The end of the siege of Arafat's Ramallah compound is front-page news that in fact means very little. The Saudis needed to show that they could influence the U.S., the U.S. needed to show it could get a compromise from Sharon, and Sharon figured that there was little more to be gained from continuing the siege, which had diverted far too much attention away from Palestinian terror onto Arafat.

In reality, the freeing of Yasser Arafat became inevitable once Bush and Sharon blinked on his expulsion at the start of Operation Defensive Shield. The Bush Admnistration, deferring to its professional appeasers in the State Department, has decided on a strategy of stalling for time with Arab-Israeli conflict until it can launch its war on Saddam Hussein. The "bypass" option, as termed by Dennis Ross, while essential for a real settlement, would cause a panic among Arab leaders, which is convinced that an expulsion of Arafat would lead to protests that were no longer stage-managed.

While the Saudis and the State Department come out winners in the lifting of the siege of Arafat, the losers are the Israelis and the Palestinians - who will continue to suffer the consequences of Arafat's violent dreams and corrupt means.