Rabbi Sol, the intifada was not Arafat's decision. It was a spontaneous outburst of emotion from Palestinians after a gathering of them had been fired upon, and several of them killed, by Israeli soldiers as they (the Palestinians) were demonstrating, armed only with rocks.

Personally, I don't favor the use of collective punishment as a way of accomplishing a political agenda. And if all of the Palestinians are to be punished for whatever Arafat does or does not do, that is collective punishment. Collective punishment is against the Geneva convention, and it also has been one of the favorite tactics of people you and I would probably both regard as not being ones we would want to emulate.