At their conclusion of their meeting last month, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat presented Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, with a mother-of-pearl rendering of the city of Bethlehem.
A Florida bishop present that night described the discussion moreover as cordial, gracious and substantive. There was even a verbal commitment to follow up with another meeting in the West Bank next year.
But with Israel tanks positioned outside at Arafat’s Ramallah compound, and with daily news reports calling into question the Palestinian leader’s control over his own people, no one present at the meeting could have felt too confident about the future of the man who has become an icon of Palestinian aspirations and future statehood.
This week, the European Union floated the idea of reviving the Middle East peace initiatives by recommending fresh elections be held for the Palestinian legislative council following by a declaration of statehood. Some critics have said Arafat, a Muslim believed to have been born in Egypt, is secretly less interested in statehood than he is in destroying Israel.
While it may be hard to image a Palestine without Arafat, the church’s interest in Palestine ultimately lies in the region’s people, not its leader.
"We Christians are not supportive of any government, but are supportive of the truth on the ground, documented facts, and we communicate with Arafat like any international community communicates with Arafat," said Father Labib Kobti, a priest of the Patriarchate (Archdiocese) of Jerusalem who pastors an Arab-American Catholic community near San Francisco, Calif.
The priest, who visited Orlando last week and who spoke with The Florida Catholic by phone, said that despite obvious efforts to isolate Arafat, that he remains a democratically-elected leader. No Palestinian would openly challenge Arafat’s authority, and much of the world still takes his leadership seriously.
"It would have been almost impossible to imagine Egypt with (Abdul) Nasser; you could not have imagined Jordan without King Hussein, and it is the same with Arafat," said Father Kobti, who was born in Lebanon to Palestinian parents. "It would be a loss."
But that Arafat remains under virtual house arrest by Israeli forces, that there are continuing incidents of terrorism against Israel and that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has indicated he is sorry Arafat was assassinated years ago, it is anyone’s guess if the aging Arafat has any remaining political currency. Even less clear is who would take Arafat’s place should he be deposed.
"The truth is I don’t think anybody knows; He has been the superstar for so long there. Possibly the people who have been negotiating with the lesser people at the PLO might know," said Helen Jacobstein, a professor of political science and international relations at St. Thomas University in Miami.
Anyone who would try to predict what is going to happen in that region is foolhardy, she added.
Unable to travel throughout the Palestinian territories and with his police force under siege in the constant tit-for-tat struggle with Israel, can Arafat really be expected to control extremist elements of the population?
In December, Catholic News Service described how an empty chair in the front row of St. Catherine's Church in Bethlehem, draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, came to symbolized the absence of Arafat, who was prevented by Israel from attending the Mass. His attendance at the Mass (Arafat’s wife is Christian) had been an annual tradition which some say underscored Arafat’s acknowledgement of the local Christian community.
Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem has said the restrictions placed on Arafat's freedom were the same restrictions placed on all Palestinians.
"You can’t image the feelings of the Palestinian people right now with their leader under (house) arrest, and that is what makes normal people extremist," said Rateb Rabie, president and founder of the Maryland-based Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation.
Rabie was on hand last month for the meeting of Arafat and a delegation of European and North American bishops meeting in the Holy Land. The Vatican-sponsored meeting resulted in new pledges of support for Christians in the region, and a fresh call for peace.
In their concluding message to the Christians of the Holy Land, the bishops took note of the violence affecting everyone in the Holy Land, writing, "The present cycle of violence is a tragedy for everyone. It is profoundly wrong to keep a people under occupations; it is abhorrent to hold millions of men, women and children confined in one enormous jail."
In an acknowledgement of the terrorism perpetrated against Israeli’s, they wrote it is likewise "morally reprehensible to take vengeance or undertake resistance with random attacks on innocent people."
In his Feb. 3 essay in the New York Times, Arafat denounced terrorism perpetrated in the name of Palestine. He called for a Palestinian vision of an "independent and viable Palestinian state" on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, "living as an equal neighbor alongside Israel with peace and security for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples."
But the events which could eventually lead to a Palestinian state are not entirely within Arafat’s hands, according to Walid Phares, associate professor Middle East Studies and ethnic and religious conflict at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Phares believes Arafat has twice "missed the boat" in failing to negotiate a settlement with Israel in recent years.
"Events may force him to revise his strategies, either by maintaining a tough position or by softening," said Phares, who is a Lebanese Christian. "The Sharon government will definitely try to undermine Arafat internationally."
Europeans, he noted, are still attached to the leadership of Arafat. They will continue to endorse him as a Palestinian leader but will put more pressure on him to make concession, while the United States is putting increasingly less stock in Arafat’s credibility.
"However, they wouldn’t want to replace him with a more radical figure," Phares said of the U.S. leadership. "They will pressure him further, but will not reinvigorate him in the same way they did in the past."
But California’s Father Kobti, who founded "Al-Bushra," a pro-Arab-American Christian magazine and website, believes it is ultimately in Israel’s interests to support Arafat’s legitimacy.
"The United States has helped Israel become what it is today, and now we say it is time to help do the same thing with the survival of Israel by helping creating friendly neighbors — and you do this with security, economic prosperity, the Palestinian state and right of return of the refugees," he said.
Israel, as an occupying force, cannot survive, he said. It will always be looked at as a phenomenon of contradiction and will create violence after violence. "We need to help Israel create friends."

Tom Tracy can be reached at statepage@aol.com.