The prospect of outside intervention, anathema to most Israelis, is a saving grace to Palestinians. On May 2nd Yasser Arafat was released from his imprisonment in Ramallah, courtesy of a model he wants applied throughout the occupied territories: the insertion of foreign security men. Any international force would have a dual function, protecting Israelis from terrorism as well as Palestinians from assault. But Mr Arafat sees it, above all, as shielding his regime and himself from an Israeli leader who is out to get both. Five months ago, Mr Arafat was at a low ebb: confined by Israeli tanks to his presidential compound in Ramallah (and later squeezed into two rooms) and left to fester by much of Europe and the Arab world. Ariel Sharon had declared him "irrelevant" and the Bush administration was thinking of dumping him. Now he is "the most important leader in the Middle East", as Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Abdullah, wryly told George Bush last week.
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