Yasser Arafat’s position is so weak that Fox News reports he felt compelled to pull a gun on Jibril Rajoub, the head of preventative security for the West Bank.
Arafat had ordered the arrest of Fatah faction members, and Rajoub’s men are mostly Fatah. Rajoub reportedly told people he would not follow Arafat’s order which led to the confrontation in which Arafat pulled a gun (which dropped to the floor due to Arafat’s rather pronounced problem with shaking).
Reading between the lines, it looks like Rajoub doesn’t expect Arafat to be aroudn long either and is setting himself up as a possible successor to Arafat. According to Fox, Rajoub has kept the men under his command out of the fighting with Israel, while simultaneously giving the appearance that he’s not willing to implement orders from Arafat that are unpopular with the Palestinians.
Arafat is clearly running out of time.