In an apparent first confirmation of his failing heath, Mr Yasser Arafat told visiting members of a Washington think-tank in Ramallah this week: "I don't know if I'll live one year or two years," David Horovitz writes from Jerusalem.
According to an account in the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz, he was responding to a question about how he envisaged his Palestinian Authority 20 years from now. Mr Arafat (68) has previously denied rumours that the trembling of his lower lip and hands point to Parkinson's disease or other serious health problems.