>Arafat had his chances at peace. But what happened? There were many cease fire along the way... what happened?

What happened is that prime Minister Barak, prodded by his constituents (he is a moderate) and by President Clinton (who was in office then), offered Arafat the best deal they could ever hope for. It allowed for the most concessions Israel was capable of offering.

Arafat wanted more and turned it down. That killed the peace accord and Barak's government fell, giving way for the conservatives to place Ariel Sharon as PM for many years (until his illness last month). Arafat could have been placed in posterity as the reformed terrorist that finally made peace in the Middle East. He was too stupid, greedy and corrupt to see that. What we had instead is more of the same.