BBC:

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has accused Osama Bin Laden of exploiting the Palestinian struggle for an independent state.

The BBC story points to a Times story that contains this:

Proclaiming himself the first Arab leader to stand up to Al-Qaeda, Arafat said: “Bin Laden has never — not ever — stressed this issue … He was working in another, completely different area, and against our interests.”

Well, of course. The Palestinians are kind of like the Gypsies of the Middle East: nobody there wants them around. But their political cause (officially these days, I believe that is: Israel should contract to the 1947 borders and the Palestinians should live in the space that’s vacated) is a hell of a lot more defensible than the aims of most other Arab “militant” groups, aims that seem to be best described as: kill a whole lot of people and impose an Islamic theocracy on the entire world.

And so the Saudis and other terrorist organizations weep publically for the Palestinians. The other Arabs’ main interest in there being a Palestinian homeland is that then the Palestinians will presumably go there. In the meantime, though, they’ll all happy to make hay from the Palestinians’ cause, using it to justify moves toward their own less-palatable goals.