<A mongoose bites a cobra in the back of the neck - not the tail.

Whereas the monitor lizard simply eats the cobra, and it doesn't really matter where he starts -- since he's immune to the venom and his limited surface nervous system allows him to pretty much ignore the bites.

Israeli intelligence is going crazy. They fear that Arafat's reluctance to curb terrorists - even after nearly killing him - is a sign that he feels confident Saddam will very soon have the bomb and be able to blackmail Israel into creating a Palestinian state.

Arafat is impotent. He always has been. He has no more control over what Palestine extremists do than the U.S. has. He (and the U.S.) can talk a calm them with promises, empty or otherwise, but it is a fact that Palestine will allow peace only on their terms, and when things are going well for Palestine, Arafat looks like a Nobel peace negotiator.

Dan