ameliorated (!) by one of the principal laws of human relations: "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."
The Arab countries have been sowing the wind for half a century. In the confident knowledge that the United States at least wanted to be seen as a nice guy, and would restrain the Israelis if they got too bloody, they've seen a clear field for aggrandizing themselves, and justifying their rule, by pointing to the United States, and the West in general, as the bad guys stealing the peoples' livelihoods.
Now, as the burgeoning crop of whirl-winds emerges from the fertile soil, they're all looking for shelter. One of the byproducts of Osama bin Laden, al Qaida, and the WTC terrorism is that the United States has decided that it will never be seen as the nice guy. That being the case, a whole set of tactics that were heretofore foreclosed by public opinion are now open -- and the greatest of these is: ::shrug:: what's a Palestinian?
Another byproduct is Hamas, which grew in Southern Lebanon and now makes its home in Palestine, and is almost entirely the result of Israeli restraint at U.S. urging. [It could have been destroyed in the early days, but it would have been ugly -- approaching genocidal -- and that wasn't allowed.] Hamas is totally, bitterly opposed to allowing any Jew to survive, let alone the State of Israel -- and thanks to fifty years of propaganda, they've got the bodies. It's almost possible to feel pity for Arafat. If he makes peace with the Israelis, especially Sharon, Hamas will kill him in a heartbeat. If he doesn't make peace with the Israelis, the IDF will take him out in roughly the same period of time.
I said "almost possible". At this point, it's getting harder and harder from where I sit to feel much sympathy for either side, although by me Israel still gets a good bit of credit. As for Arafat, he made his own bed -- although to be sure he had plenty of assistance from Syria, Iraq, the Saudis, and Egypt (more or less in that order).