by JAMES TARANTO
Friday, June 21, 2002 2:49 P.M. EDT

Yesterday, All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away
Yasser Arafat tells Ha'aretz "that he accepts the proposal first made by former U.S. president Bill Clinton as a framework for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians." This, of course, is the same proposal Arafat famously rejected in 2000. Arafat's willingness to go along with a plan that he viewed as unacceptable two years ago is pretty compelling evidence that he's losing his war with Israel.

President Bush, meanwhile, almost announced his own plan for a "provisional" Palestinian state this week, but was forced to postpone the announcement by a pair of suicide massacres in Jerusalem, one of which was committed by Arafat's own al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. "The chief result of the U.S. initiative was that Israel's determination to achieve a decisive victory on the battlefield has been intensified," writes Aluf Benn in Ha'aretz. "At this week's cabinet session, Public Security Minister Uzi Landau warned that the window of opportunity for bringing about the collapse of the Palestinian Authority would soon close."

The Road to Damascus
As we noted Tuesday, Syria has reportedly been cooperating with the U.S. in interrogating an al Qaeda suspect. But that doesn't mean America has gone soft on the terror-loving Damascus dictatorship. The Associated Press reports that in a closed session of the U.N. Security Council--with Syria's foreign minister presiding--America's U.N. ambassador, John Negroponte, "strongly attacked Syria's support for terrorist groups and demanded it condemn Palestinian suicide bombings."

In the Los Angeles Times, Geoffrey Aronson argues that an Israeli military clash with Syria may be in the offing if "the on-again-off-again battle" with Hezbollah terrorists intensifies. America has restrained Israel from confronting Syria in the past, but "there are growing indications that a U.S. president has given Israel a green light to attack targets on Syrian soil" if Hezbollah doesn't cool it.

Tutu Backs Apartheid
"Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center sharply criticized South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Thursday over an opinion piece in which the Nobel peace laureate called for divestment from Israel to protest Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," Reuters reports. The piece appeared a week ago in the International Herald Tribune.

So let's see if we have this straight: Tutu is calling for a boycott of Israel because he doesn't think Jews should be allowed to live in certain places. Didn't he use to be against apartheid?

Tutu won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

Moral Unequivalence
"Israeli tanks opened fire Friday on the market in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, killing four Palestinians, including three children," the Associated Press reports. Those killed were a six-year-old boy, a six-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy and a man of about 50. "As a result of the shooting three Palestinians were killed and 10 others were wounded," the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement. "An initial inquiry indicates that the force erred in its action."

In the Jewish town of Itamar, a terrorist murdered five people--a woman, three of her eight children and the head of the community's emergency response team--the Jerusalem Post reports. There is no indication that the terrorist erred in his action.

It Takes a Village to Raze a Child
The New York Times reports on the growing death cult among Palestinian Arabs:

Dr. Iyad Sarraj, a Palestinian psychiatrist in Gaza City, has watched the trend toward suicide bombing with growing alarm. He said that having grown up with the idea of suicide attacks, Palestinian children were equating death with power. . . .

To this psychiatrist, the development is comparable to a fad for body-building, gathering adherents by presenting an ideal that is embraced, even unconsciously. "Once you create such a culture," Dr. Sarraj said, "you create something automatic."

But like many Palestinians, he said even he could not challenge the social acceptance of this ideal by directly criticizing the martyrs themselves. "You can say, `I condemn terror, I condemn killing civilians,' but you can't say, 'I condemn martyrs,' because martyrs are prophets."

"This week," the Times notes, "Israel's forces arrested a 12-year-old Palestinian boy its intelligence had identified as planning an attack."

You Don't Say
"Study: Palestinians Target Civilians"--headline, the Forward, June 14

Arabs in Fantasyland
A symposium in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, "has concluded that Arab Jews have enjoyed greater fundamental rights and freedom under Arab Islamic rule than under Israeli Zionist regimes," the Gulf news reports. "The participants . . . referred to the peaceful co-existence of Muslims and Jews in Arab Muslim countries, where Jews are treated equally and enjoy their fundamental rights and freedom, which they cannot under Israeli regimes." If Jews and non-Jews are "treated equally" in Arab countries, it's only because the governments of those lands don't recognize anyone's "fundamental rights and freedom."

Talk About a Wrong Number
Michael Hamdan of Las Vegas, a naturalized American born in Lebanon, says he picked up his cell phone on Saturday and accidentally intercepted someone else's conversation:

"They said in Arabic, not even a word of English, 'We are in the city of corruption, the city of prostitution, the city of gambling, the city of unbelievers,' " Hamdan told The Associated Press late Thursday. " 'We are going to hit them on the day of freedom.' "

Hamdan thinks they meant Independence Day. The FBI is investigating.

'The Law in Germany Works Well'
Syrian-born businessman Mamoun Darkazanli, who lives in Hamburg, Germany, knew honcho hijacker Mohamed Atta. German officials questioned him after Sept. 11 but let him go for lack of evidence, the Associated Press reports. "The German authorities hold nothing against me, and no one else holds anything against me," Darkazanli tells the AP. "The law in Germany works well." The New York Times, however, reports that "under American pressure, German officials say they are intensifying their investigation" of Darkazanli.

Of Atta & Co., Darkazanli says: "I personally don't think they are terrorists. There must be an international court for these people to be proven guilty. Bush is not the judge of all of humanity." Sounds as though he should run for mayor of Reuterville.

Sayonara, Sabaya
Abu Sabaya, a leader of the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, "is believed to have been killed in a firefight with government troops," CBS News reports. Abu Sayyaf is the group that kidnapped and murdered American missionary Martin Burnham.

Justice, Saudi Style
After Simon Veness, a British banker, died in a Riyadh car bombing yesterday, the Saudis rounded up the usual suspects, arresting seven Westerners. A Stratfor analysis suggests the arrests are bogus:

The bombers have not made demands or political statements, but their purpose is fairly clear. Attacking Westerners is a way to erode the delicate middle ground inhabited by the Saudi government. Dead Westerners will either fray relations between the Saudi government and the United States and United Kingdom, or they will force the government closer to the West and away from many of the Saudi people.

The bombers' strategy of causing friction between the Saudis and the West is relatively simple to discern, and the American, British and Saudi governments have tried not to fall into the trap. The Saudis played to their domestic audience by immediately arresting seven Westerners for the crime. The United States and United Kingdom were extremely upset, but both countries downplayed the incidents as much as they could, even asking some of the victims families not to "rock the boat" according to the UK-based Guardian.

"Since the Saudi internal security services have such a tight grip on the country," Stratfor says, "it is likely [the bombings] occurred with the cooperation, or at least implicit consent, of some element inside the security services."

The Turks Step In
"Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member, has taken over command from Britain of the 19-nation international peacekeeping force guarding the Afghan capital," CNN reports, noting that "Turkey has had close ties with Afghanistan since King Amanullah invited in the Turks during the 1920s to help his army, and Washington is keen to promote majority-Muslim Turkey as a secular, democratic role model for Afghanistan."

Progress, Iranian Style
Here's what passes for reform in the axis of evil: Iran's religious police are no longer shooting pet dogs, the Christian Science Monitor reports:

Once upon a time, semi-official religious authorities called basijis shot dogs dead on the street. Many "disappeared" like political dissidents. In the days following the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the Shah, some zealots wanted to execute all of the horses in the royal stable. Until about five years ago, you couldn't really have a pet in the Iran without raising the ire of authorities.

But the bad days are over now, and despite periodic hassles, spaniels and poodles and other breeds have made a comeback on the streets of Tehran.

The Koran doesn't say anything bad about dogs, but Shia religious rulings declare them najess, "the highest level of dirtiness." Persian pet owners aren't entirely out of the doghouse; the Monitor says an "official-looking notice" appeared in Iranian newspapers a couple of months ago "warning people to keep dogs and monkeys out of public spaces."

The Dangers of Excusing Terror
Alan Krueger and Jitka Maleckova make an excellent point in The New Republic:

Drawing a false and unjustified connection between poverty and terrorism is potentially quite dangerous, as the international aid community may lose interest in providing support to developing nations when the imminent threat of terrorism recedes, much as support for development waned in the aftermath of the Cold War; and connecting foreign aid with terrorism risks the possibility of humiliating many people in less developed countries, who are implicitly told that they receive aid only to prevent them from committing acts of terror. Moreover, premising foreign aid on the threat of terrorism could create perverse incentives in which some groups are induced to engage in terrorism to increase their prospects of receiving aid.

Bush vs. Bush
The Bush administration is proposing to tighten visa rules, limiting many visitors to 30-day stays. This isn't sitting well with the president's brother, Florida's Gov. Jeb Bush, who calls the new restrictions "unreasonable" and says they could hurt the Sunshine State's tourism industry, the Tampa Tribune reports. "Although 'the safety and security of our nation and its borders are of utmost importance,' the governor testified on videotape before a congressional committee, millions of international visitors 'come to this country wishing only to enjoy our nation's natural beauty, exciting destinations and the hospitality.' "

Zero-Tolerance Watch
Bryan and Dana Adkins of Baytown, Texas, have dismissed assault charges against teacher Maria Ripke. Adkins, a Baytown cop, had alleged that Ripke squirted his 11-year-old son with a water pistol, but no one else in the class would corroborate the story, suggesting that the boy was all wet. We noted the case in March.

Why We Love Russia--I
First Russia instituted a flat tax. Now it's privatizing its equivalent of Social Security. Under a reform plan just passed by the Duma, "citizens will be able to choose non-state pension funds to manage their future pensions starting in 2004," the Moscow Times reports

Why We Love Russia--II
"Beer is, under Russian law, considered a soft drink," Richard Musson of Sun Interbrew tells the BBC. "Beer is something that you have for refreshment when you don't want to really drink. It helps men to communicate without making you fall over and beat up your wife and do other terrible things."

'Dork' Nabbed
Police in Georgia have arrested Keith Edward Johnson, a suspect in four bank robberies. Johnson is described as the "dork bandit" because of "how witnesses described his demeanor" and because he wears "thick prescription glasses."

Our Cup Runneth Over
America lost to Germany, 1-0, in the World Cup soccer game in the wee hours of this morning. The good news is we won't have to hear about soccer again, at least until the next World Cup (how often do they have these things, anyway?).

Giving new meaning to the word appeasement, columnist Dan Barreiro of the Minneapolis Star Tribune--yes, the same paper that refuses to use the names of sports teams it deems offensive, or to call the mass murder of Jews "terrorism"--yesterday urged the American team to throw the game:

For the good of the world, the U.S. team should take a dive.

Yes, it already has become clear that Europe, Asia and parts of the Americas simply can't handle the new-found success of the U.S.

"It hurt us here," said one Mexican soccer fan, punching his chest, after the U.S. victory. 'There has to be an end to this disgrace where [Americans] treat us like rats." . . .

If loving soccer means turning it into some life-and-death struggle, then count me out. As for the U.S. team, it is to be congratulated for its historic success. Yet for the happiness of most of the globe, the U.S. would be better served losing to Germany.

We think he's joking, but with the Star Tribune, one can never be quite sure.

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Today on OpinionJournal:

• William Tucker: If activists kill capital punishment, murder rates will rise.
• Daniel Henninger: John Gotti and Osama bin Laden are both organization men.
• Peggy Noonan: Don't give antiterrorism a bad name. And do prevent smallpox.

And on the Taste page:

• Review & Outlook: The U.N. goes Hollywood.
• Tony & Tacky: Eternal damnation? Who the hell cares?
• Tunku Varadarajan: Should moguls stay mum? No one else does.
• Meghan Cox Gurdon: Kids love Lemony Snicket's bloodthirsty tales.
• Jason Riley: The Jehovah's Witnesses' freedom makes a former member cringe.

And don't miss "WSJ Editorial Board With Stuart Varney," tonight at 9 EDT and PDT on CNBC.