The death of Yasser Arafat brings to an end a momentous era in the history of the Palestinian people he led for nearly 40 years.
But, in an extraordinary coincidence of timing, it may have opened the way to achieve a political process that has collapsed over the last four years, since the failure of the Camp David talks. President Bush said in Washington yesterday that he hopes to see a democratic Palestinian state emerge over the next four years and that he will work with European leaders towards that goal. It would be foolish to be over optimistic, but there is a real opportunity to make progress in this most deep-seated and strategic of conflicts.
Yasser Arafat came to symbolise Palestinian demands for nationhood and state sovereignty against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza after 1967 and was the public voice and the potent image of Palestinian identity. He struggled for these objectives militarily and politically, making a long transition from one means to the other. In the process he came to accept a two-state settlement of the conflict. This took great courage and commitment and represented a major evolution in Palestinian nation-building. But in his later years he proved incapable of relinquishing control of the network of security, financial and political organisations that held the Palestinian Authority together. Nor was he able or willing to forge a successor leadership. He relied on windy rhetoric, emotional loyalty and nepotism to hold on to power.
All this makes the task of creating an orderly succession very difficult. There is a danger that deep factionalism will result in a power struggle and open up the Palestinian leadership to competing groups of Islamic fundamentalists. It is essential that the conditions of Israeli occupation are eased to allow an orderly and peaceful political process. Assuming this happens, all concerned with the settlement negotiations will have to accept the results. It is one thing for Mr Bush and Mr Tony Blair to use the language of democracy in Washington yesterday; quite another for them - or Mr Ariel Sharon - to use it as an excuse not to deal with a Palestinian leader whose demands they cannot accept.
Efforts to revive the peace process over the last four years were virtually stillborn as Israel responded to the second Palestinian Intifada with brutal force and intransigence, notwithstanding the efforts in the last year to revive negotiations through the international quartet. The news from Washington yesterday is welcome, along with indications that Mr Bush wants to work with European leaders, who argue convincingly that without a credible Israeli-Palestinian peace process there is no prospect of stabilising Iraq or undermining the appeal of Islamic fundamentalist movements - much less of encouraging the spread of democracy in the region.
Mr Bush and Mr Sharon must now come to terms with a new Palestinian leadership. They and the rest of the international community should respond generously to this new opportunity for peace.