The very qualities that allowed Yasser Arafat to survive as leader of the intrigue-ridden Palestine Liberation Organization for 30 years could now prove fatal to the critically endangered Arab-Israeli peace.
Arafat's ability to crack down on the Hamas extremists who are trying to blast the peace settlement to bits is widely doubted - not only by the Israelis but by many Western officials who have dealt with him in the past.It's not so much a matter of distrust - at least, among non-Israelis - as it is a lack of confidence that he is up to the grave challenge he faces.
Either way, the issue of Arafat's resolve has become a key factor in the crisis brought about by the killing of more than 60 people by Hamas suicide bombers in nine days.
Even before the bombings, questions had arisen over his performance as head of the fledgling self-governing Palestinian Authority on the West Bank and in Gaza.
Western diplomats in the region criticized the bumbling way in which he and his PLO entourage set up administrative machinery and the difficulty many of them seemed have in understanding the difference between governance and operating a liberation movement.
Criticism wasn't restricted to outsiders. Numerous Palestinians also voiced keen disappointment despite the overwhelming vote of confidence given to Arafat by his election as the Palestinian Auth-ority's president.
He and his team often appeared bewildered or uninterested in the nuts and bolts of creating an effective governmental infrastructure and far more concerned with tightening the political grip of Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO.
At the same time, Hamas was relentlessly extending its influence, especially in the Gaza Strip, without more than nominal interference from the new Palestinian rulers.
A French diplomat who was in the West Bank in early February told me that local Palestinian officials were disheartened by the absence of clear directives from the top.
"They said that when the Israelis were running things, they at least understood what was expected of them and knew that routine administration was assured," he recalled. "Now, more often than not, they were given no idea of what to do."
The diplomat described Arafat as acting more like a party boss and propagandist than a chief of government. This isn't surprising because, at heart, that's what he has always been.
For three decades, Arafat was essentially an agitator and master maneuverer who survived by skillfully weaving his way around the deadly in-fighting among the various factions comprising the PLO.
He was a leader whose secret of success was not to lead but to tread gingerly in order to make sure that, whatever happened, he remained on top, more or less acceptable to nearly everyone in the notoriously riven Palestinian nationalist movement.
As French Middle East analyst Georges Corm recently observed: "Firm leadership was never Arafat's strong point. If it had been, he would have been assassinated long ago by his Palestinian enemies."
Arafat has pledged to do so, but it is not in his nature to carry out such a promise. His entire political past suggests that he will instead dodge a genuine confrontation with Hamas - even at the risk of wrecking the chances of a lasting Palestinian-Israeli settlement.