But Sharon is true to his beliefs. What is shocking is how the world has succumbed in resignation to what is happening in the Holy Land. Sharon could give the order to blow up to smithereens the last standing building, with Arafat and his aides still huddled inside, and that would be the end of it. Other than the usual statements of denunciation and regret life for the rest of us would go on. The Palestinian people are destined to carry their burden alone and face the wrath and fury of their tormentor.

In fact the plight of the Palestinian people, who have been struggling for liberation and independence ever since the mighty British army marched into Jerusalem more than 85 years ago ending centuries of Ottoman rule, is unique in modern political history.

It's a checkered history of ephemeral victories and nagging disappointments. No nation on earth today has suffered as much as the people of Palestine. The irony is that international legality, the result of unprecedented diplomatic largesse, is on their side, as dozens of UN resolutions attest.

In the eyes of the world, they are an occupied nation who has an alienable right to self-determination and independence and accordingly their resistance of occupation is a legitimate one.

The siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters epitomizes decades of Palestinian struggle that has never looked so futile and hopeless. Between the first Palestinian revolt of 1936 and the latest Intifada, which erupted in September 2000, many deals and agreements, treaties and resolutions have been trampled on and deposited into the dustbin of history.