The anger swells

摘要

Addressing last week's Arab summit by satellite from his besieged headquarters in Ramallah, Yasser Arafat was in classic rambling form. While decrying Israeli "atrocities", he welcomed the Saudi peace initiative and, in a concluding burst of magnanimity, wished Jews a happy Passover. Two hours later, a suicide-bomber from the Islamist group Hamas turned it into the saddest Passover in memory. And two days later, Israeli tanks smashed into Mr Arafat's headquarters, snuffing out whatever pale embers of hope the Saudi initiative had briefly fanned. Israel's offensive has generated a tidal wave of outrage across the Arab and Mus- lim worlds. So far the anger concentrates on Mr Sharon, but fury at the Bush administration's inaction is catching up fast. America's Arab partners, assailed for their seeming impotence, are moving into the firing line too. Jordan and Egypt, the only Arab states to maintain formal diplomatic relations with Israel, have been wracked by daily demonstrations of unusual scale and ferocity, and protests have spread to such sleepy places as Oman, Tunisia and Bangladesh. A Japanese sympathiser even immolated himself in a Tokyo park.