GAZA CITY, Occupied Gaza Strip -- Several dozen armed Palestinians here recently opened fire on a portrait of Yasser Arafat, vowing to assassinate the Palestine Liberation Organization leader upon his arrival in the West Bank.
"Arafat is in very bad shape. He is finished," said Aziz al-Duwak, a leader of the extremist faction Hamas in Hebron. "The Palestinian people feel he has turned his back on them."
Arafat's popularity, already sagging before the recent Hebron mosque massacre, now appears to be hanging by a thread as Israeli-PLO peace talks are about to resume. Arafat angrily dismisses the criticism and insists his popularity is still strong. "It is the work of the secret services," Arafat told the French newspaper Le Figaro. "I know who is behind it. I do not believe the Palestinians are against me."
And Israel - as Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made clear again at the White House Wednesday - would rather negotiate with Arafat, whom it sees as moderate compared with groups like Hamas.
Palestinians are angry with Arafat on three counts, charging he:
-- Has not delivered on the stalled peace accord signed with Israel six months ago that would give PLO control of the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
-- Has accepted Israeli conditions not included in the plan, such as delaying the withdrawal of troops from the occupied territories.
-- Has not struck back at Is-rael for the Feb. 25 massacre of at least 36 Palestinians by Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein.
And few Palestinians expect him to do anything different.
"Hamas is only (group) giving Palestinians dignity," said Suliman al-Shorafa, 48, a gift shop owner here who once was an Arafat backer. "Arafat is going on the basis that it's better to get something than stay on the outside and get nothing," said Tel Aviv University's Clinton Bailey, an expert on the Palestine Liberation Organization. "Finally, the Palestinians have a chance to get something and they feel they're getting less."
Recent attempts by both President Clinton and Rabin to shore up Arafat's popularity by indirectly praising the PLO leader apparently have backfired. Many Palestinians seem to believe he has become the West's puppet.
"The chairman has been discredited," said PLO leader Ghassan Khateeb. "The Palestinian people are angry, disappointed. The feelings have never been this negative before."
Signs of disenchantment are growing. Consider:
-- Pictures of Arafat, once surrounded by flowers and bright lights in homes, shops and mosques, are being torn down and burned in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and even in neighboring Jordan, traditionally an Arafat stronghold.
-- Rumors persist Arafat will be killed if he goes to Jericho. Many in Jericho are taking bets on it.
-- PLO officials like Faisal Husseini, Arafat's chief West Bank representative, are being pelted with rocks and forced to leave Jerusalem's Temple Mount when they try to attend protests over the Hebron killing. Still, don't count Arafat out.
"Arafat is a like a phoenix as long as the problems get solved," Bailey says. "When the anger cools, Palestinians will realize they don't have anybody else."
