December 4, 2001:

The US administration reiterates its demand that Arafat do more to crack down on Palestinian hardliners held responsible for terrorist attacks in Israel. Maybe he can do more but what is left of Arafat's authority is not clear: the israelian retaliation raids destroyed his helicopters, the palestinian radio station, some of his civil police headquarters in Gaza. They also ripped up the runway of the Gaza airport, closed down some of his naval police station and target-killed some of the PLO leaders. The aggressive US stance toward Arafat is in stark contrast to Washington 's policy in Autumn, when Bush made a declaration of support for a viable palestinian state. At that moment, US was trying to build an international coalition for a war on Afghanistan.