Progress!!!

If only this were true:

....Chairman Yasser Arafat said. He added that this was a result of the decision by the PA's security council to implement law and order

They're going to implement law and order? They're going to implement law and order! <dejection>They're going to implement law and order?</dejection>

I'm sorry, but Arafat saying he's going to implement law and order is a joke. The man does not understand law and order except to know that it only exists somewhere else. How can he possibly expect to enforce a concept with which he is totally unfamiliar?

It's nice to see the Palestinian Authority finally at least paying lip service to the idea, but it's going to take more than lip service and roadblocks to create a real environment of law and order. It is going to take a fundamental shift in the behavior and propaganda of the Authority.

I suppose we should be happy and thankful that Arafat has seen the light enough to justify such a proclamation, but I just can't help thinking that, like all the other politically expedient pronouncements he's made in the past, he won't actually follow through.

He did not know how and if the PA would punish the shooter if they apprehend him.

And therein lies the rub. They may catch the perpetrator. They may take a murderer off the street, but they don't know if they would punish him. If Arafat and the PA were truly committed to "law and order" there would be no question of if. The man would be prosecuted and sentenced regardless of public opinion or religious fatwa.

What good is arresting a criminal if you're not going to punish him?