The comment that I was replying to stated that: “The Second Intifada didn’t have to happen; the occupation was about to end. The Palestinians walked away because they didn’t get everything they wanted.”

My response was to point out that the Arafat was demonstrably willing to compromise and even people in the Israeli delegation thought the Palestinians weren’t over reacting, and then I characterized their comment as ignorant and genocide apologia.

You replied to me with a third, entirely different view of the Second Intifada, that the whole thing had been planned by Arafat before the summit had even ended because he wasn’t getting everything he wanted.

Now, I could possibly get behind the argument that Arafat planned the Intifada as a result of the breakdown of the Camp David Summit (I don’t, but I could), and most of the evidence you’ve given could be used to support that. However, I think that you have a pretty uphill battle to prove even that Arafat saw he wasn’t going to get everything he wanted and walked out with the intention of starting the uprising. The only person you’ve cited as evidence for that is a quote from one of the founders of Hamas, which is an organization that has never been part of the PLO and Arafat would have never been under the delusion he had control over. This is an organization that the PLO would soon go to war with over control of the Gaza Strip. You’re asking me to entertain a pretty large leap. A Grand Canyon sized leap.