Opinion
By Mohamad Bydon '01
During his recent trip to the Middle East, Secretary of State Collin Powell announced that he and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had agreed to test Yassir Arafat's peace-making resolve: "[T]here will be seven days of trial or tests in order to see how the Palestinian Authority manages to keep its undertakings." Those undertakings are to include the "complete and utter cessation of terrorist actions, of violence and of incitement" which will lead, as the hypothetical situation decrees, to the existence of "complete quiet." The seven day test will be followed by a six week cooling-off period.
Although I do not doubt its sincerity, Powell's statement includes two incorrect assumptions.