Let The Power Struggle Begin

In what I can only think of as good news, varying news outlets are reporting an Israeli story that Arafat may be brain dead. Palestinian officials are denying it, some of them even saying that his condition is not serious. I can only think that they know what's coming and they're afraid. Arafat was barely controlling the Palestinians as it was, and there's nobody with the kind of power, authority or respect that he had anywhere among the Palestinians. Look for a vicious, bloody power struggle (over, say, the next two years) between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as they duke it out for control, with Israel picking off any extremist that emerges. Hopefully, at the end of this a moderate, sensible Palestinian leader emerges and they finally work out a viable, two state solution that everybody can live with.