Yasser Arafat will be permanently etched in history as a squanderer of opportunity.

Arafat possessed the power to forge a better life for the Palestinian people. However, his obsession with terrorism and bringing about the demise of Israel consumed his efforts and kept his people from enjoying the economic prosperity and peaceful existence that they increasingly are showing signs of coveting.

Hopefully, as the scope of the corruption that existed under Arafat's leadership becomes more known and acknowledged by now-grieving Palestinians, many more will long for the opportunities that Arafat allowed to slip away. Likewise, it is to be hoped that someday Palestinians will grasp the understanding of how much in financial and other resources that could have been of benefit to their lives were instead diverted or ignored by Arafat as he waged his futile initiative against the Israeli people.

While the danger remains that, in the end, the instability brought about by Arafat's death will give rise to leadership even worse than Arafat's - a failed leadership that encompassed four decades - his passing nevertheless provides a window for change.

Arafat was a Nobel Peace Prize winner who, in the end, proved to have been unworthy of that honor. Arafat was a leader of people who failed to realize the broad benefits of compromise amid his unrelenting desire to achieve all of what he sought, nothing less.

Arafat was once regarded by the United States as a key to peace in the Middle East region, but wasted that possibility - both in terms of his personal international standing and in regard to the well-being of his people - by his refusal to become a true force against terrorism.

He has been described as having jealously guarded his power with a workaholic's obsession, but unfortunately he used that energy in the wrong way. His public recognition of Israel's right to exist without ever following up that statement with genuine, positive, productive initiatives was an example of his well-honed skill at deception.

In his final years, Arafat should have been basking in the glory of having achieved his goal of bringing to the world an understanding of the Palestinian people's plight - and relishing how his efforts paid off for the average Palestinian's life. Instead, his final three years were spent as a captive in his battered Ramallah compound, surrounded by Israeli troops, with his people still experiencing an uneviable standard of living, and fear.

After having been told of Arafat's death, President George W. Bush expressed the hope that "the future will bring peace and the fulfillment of their (Palestinian people's) aspirations for an independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbors."

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Palestinians' new leaders must be able to "mobilize the Palestinian people to bring them together to the realization that terrorism is not helping them achieve their desire for a state of their own."

Arafat never realized his dream of Palestinian statehood because he was the biggest obstacle to that accomplishment. It is to be hoped that his people in the months ahead will have the opportunity and open-mindedness to rightly ponder the past as they face the uncertainties of the future.

America, on the basis of Bush's previous explicit endorsement of establishment of a Palestinian state on land currently held by Israel, is poised to help the Palestinian people obtain what Arafat squandered.

- J.R.K.