It's a tragedy the negotiations last year failed. But putting all the blame on the one side distorts what happened. And talking in terms of accusations of personal cowardice doesn't help. I imagine Arafat is no more keen on the idea of getting murdered than any Israeli politician would be. But I know of no evidence that he is any less willing than any Israeli politician to risk his life if need be.

I'd think that a more likely reason for the inability of Arafat to accept the deal offered last year was that he thought it likely that most Palestinians would see it as unacceptible. If an equivalent deal had been offered to the Israelis, including the ending of any right of return, and the fragmentation of Israeli terrierory, I suspect that they wouldn't have thought it such a good deal.

A deal like that would have to have been eased into acceptance, with time to think about it and discuss it and get used to the implications. The politics of the time mean that it had to be rushed at in a hectic and hectoring way, because of electoral timetables, and so forth.

And in the background Hamas and Sharon resolved to do what they could to make any agreement impossible, and succeeding.