An example of the "Blame Arafat for rejecting Barak's offer" red herring is in Freidman's July 10 screed, where he says: On the Arab-Israel front, a great power like the U.S. does not belong arranging cease-fires. This has allowed Mr. Arafat to turn everyone's attention away from the fact that he rejected a peace plan put forward by the Clintonites that offered Palestinians 95 percent of what they wanted. The Bushies should say to Mr. Arafat that the U.S. will get re-engaged if he accepts the Clinton plan, or a Bush adaptation of it. The focus should not be on whether Mr. Powell is serious about mediating but on whether Mr. Arafat is serious about a deal
Now the July 19 International Herald Tribune reports page 1, 6 that Clinton started the "Arafat rejected the perfectly good offer from Barak" lie after the Camp David talks, before which he had promised Arafat he would not blame him for any failures in those negotiations( see Robert Malley, Mr Clinton's special assistant for Arab-Israeli affairs, and Hussein Agha, a scholar who often advises the Palestinian leadership, writing in the July 20 New York Review of Books).
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