Fifteen years ago, before Arafat became a 'world leader', the general concensus in the West was that there could be no peace in the mid-east until Palestinians got their own state. Since then Arafat has succeeded in bringing much of the West to the conclusion that the only way to have peace is to get rid of Israel.
I don't know any western government that believes Isral has to be removed for peace. I don't think it's a widely held view amongst many westerners either.
Arafat became a "world leader" in 1975, with his speech to the UN, and the Arab league recognition of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinians.
So what exactly does Arafat do?
Arafat builds a consensus amongst different Palestinian groups, and rejects outside influence. That's why he's survived so long.
I wouldn't accept Barak's offer if I was a palestinian - still, there's big difference from not accepting an offer during peace talks, and starting another terrorism campaign.
I wouldn't have accepted Barak's offer during Camp David either. Not only was it a terrible deal for the Palestinians, it was probably unworkable from their point of view.
But the second Intifada didn't really start as a terrorism campaign, certainly not in the way it developed.
According to the ICT database (ICT is an Israeli counter terrorism institute, set up and run by senior, mostly retired, people from Mossad, the Israeli government etc), the first incident in the second Intifada was a bomb attack on an Israeli patrol in the Gaza strip, which killed 1 soldier. The second was a riot on Temple Mount, in which 6 Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli police. Third was an Israeli soldier shot in the West Bank, fourth a Jordanian shot by the IDF, fifth a Palestinian child killed in "unclear circunmstances", (which TV cameras seemed to show as being shot by the IDF)
Sixth fatal incident was 4 Palestinian students shot dead during a protest/riot in the West Bank, seventh 3 Palestinians killed in a clash with the IDF in Gaza, 8th 2 Palestinian paramedics shot by the IDF in the West Bank, 9th a Palestinian youth killed during a "clash" with the IDF in the West Bank, 10th a Palestinian youth killed during a demonstration/riot in Gaza. 11th a 1 year old Palestinian girl killed by a settler, 12th 2 Palestinian policemen killed by the IDF during a confrontation in the West Bank.
Those are the incidents in the last week of September, at the begining of the Intifada.
It goes on like that for some time, Palestinian riots/demonstrations in the West Bank, Palestinian police clashing with the IDF in the West Bank, gun and bomb attacks on Israeli military patrols in the West Bank (and Gaza).
There were also riots by Israeli Arabs in Israel, during which 13 Israeli Arabs were killed by the police.
The first fatal attacks inside Israel came on the 30th October, when an Israeli was found stabbed to death, and 2 security guards were shot dead in an attack on a national insurance building in Jerusalem.
Even the ICT, who try to claim that Palestinian civilians killed are overwhelmingly your men, and therefore not civilians at all, say this about the begining of the Intifada:
An initial phase characterized by very high Palestinian fatalities and relatively low Israeli fatalities;
The first phase of the al-Aqsa conflict began on 27 September 2000, and ended in late December 2000. At that time Palestinian fatalities tapered off sharply, and remained generally lower until the next September. December 21, 2000 has been chosen as the last day of this first phase. As a first approximation, we can label this phase of the conflict the “real or apparent popular uprising” phase (leaving room for uncertainty as to whether this “uprising” was genuinely spontaneous, or was manufactured by Palestinian leaders), as most of the fatalities appear to have occurred as the result of Palestinian mass demonstrations or riots, and the Israeli response to them.
The Intifada didn't begin as a wave of terrorism, it began as a series of riots and demonstrations, and evolved in to attacks on Israelis in the territories, and from there evolved in to attacks within Israel.
That suggests that it was a planned event, or that the terrorist attacks inside Israel were not planned as part of the Intifada. Suicide bombings inside Israel would have been easier early on, because of the lower security level.
