Arafat pretends to admit to making mistakes

Read it carefully - he never actually says he made a mistake, but the relieved press still acts as if this is news.

By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Yasser Arafat, in a rare nod to pressure for reforms in his Palestinian Authority, said Wednesday that the Palestinian leadership has made 'mistakes' and promised to correct them.
He did not, however, say what these mistakes were.

The remarks were among Arafat's strongest since Palestinian areas were rocked by unprecedented internal turmoil last month amid a clamor for reforms to security forces and the removal of officials accused of graft.

Arafat made the comments in an address to Palestinian lawmakers at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

'There were wrong actions ... by some institutions, and some were irresponsible and misused their positions,' Arafat said in a speech to Palestinian lawmakers. 'There is nobody immune from mistakes, starting from me on down. Even prophets committed mistakes.'

The veteran Palestinian leader said 'We need to move together to correct and reform all the mistakes.'

But he made no promises of specific action.