The U. S. says that
Arafat is the elected leader of Palestine

and we have to deal with the leader they have chosen(even if he has blood all over his hands).

ButÉ

ÒSenior members of the Bush administration met several times in recent months with leaders of a coalition that ousted the Venezuelan president, Hugo Ch‡vez, for two days last weekend, and agreed with them that he should be removed from office, administration officials said today.Ó
New York Times, Tuesday, April 16, 2002

Perhaps the time has come for an alternate ÒpartnerÓ in peace.