YASSER ARAFAT has made some interesting comments about the ancient history of Israel and the Jewish people in an interview with Ha'aretz. Here is the relevant passage (Arafat's words are in quotation marks):

We stayed, you went'

We want to follow up on this matter. You know, Shlomo Ben Ami has just published a book in which he basically says that he failed to reach an agreement with you, your people, at Camp David and Taba, and he believes that it's impossible to reach an agreement with you. There is one point which he dwells on very, very prominently in his book. He says that Israel under Barak was prepared to concede sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Palestinian state, and the issue was archaeological excavation underneath the Temple Mount. And he says that the Palestinian side at Taba was prepared to undertake not to dig under the Temple Mount, but was not prepared that the agreement should mention a historical connection between the Jewish people and that place. Ben Ami says that to him, this meant that you, Yasser Arafat, don't recognize the historical connection between the Jewish people and this land.

"Joseph and his father and his brothers were living beside Nablus. It is historically or not ...

That's in the Bible.

"It is in our Koran. The holy story of Joseph before he went to Egypt, in our Koran, in the tales. Who can say, therefore, that there is no relation [between the Jews and the land]? Do you forget that we are not calling you our cousins? Actually you are my cousin. I am from Abraham, Hagar, my grandmother was Hagar, and you are from Sara ... yes or no?

Yes, I believe that, and do you believe that?

"Definitely. This is my grandfather - Abraham ... your grandfather, and he's my grandfather also. You are from ... Yitzhak and Jacob. So it is clear, historically ..."

So, therefore, it's clear historically, and do you extend that historical vision to

Jerusalem ... Nablus is not a practical question, a practical question is Jerusalem.

"The practical question, Jerusalem, means Salem - the king who were there when Abraham came, Lot ... yes? He received them in a very friendly, brotherly ..."

Malkitzedek, in the Bible he is called Malkitzedek - king of Salem.

"And you, when Sara died he got the cave in Hebron to bury her there, and still there is an agreement between us, that you have the right to go to visit this cave which is a part of the Abraham mosque in Hebron ... You are forgetting this ..."

What are you saying? Can I get a little bit deeper. What are you saying about the king of Salem? What are you implying? That you identify with with the king of Salem? But you said before that you descended from Abraham, from Abraham through Ishmael?

"Yes, yes but we and you were cousins."

Descendants from Abraham.

"Abraham, yes, but we became citizens. We stayed here and you went where?"

To Egypt.

"To Egypt!"

Jewish prayer agreements

When it comes to Jerusalem, and to Haram al-Sharif, if Yitzhak Rabin came to you and told you, you can have sovereignty on Haram al-Sharif, what kind of arrangements, practical arrangements, would you be willing to give the Jews who want to pray there?

"It is clear what I had accepted in Camp David: The Wailing Wall, the Jewish Quarter, with a passage freely under your control."

What about what we call the Temple Mount and you call Haram al-Sharif? Under your control, would you accept Jews to worship there, to pray? Or only at the Wailing Wall?

"Until now, you have not found anything [in archaeological excavations] referring to the [Solomonic] temple ... You found Herod's temple."

Well, what's the matter with that? Why isn't that old enough for you? Herod's temple stood 2,000 years ago. That's the temple that Jesus walked in, it was a Jewish temple. What's the difference to you ... With all due respect, what's wrong, what's inferior - in your eyes - the temple of Herod to the temple of Solomon? The Jews were praying in the temple of Herod more than 2,000 years ago. Is that a historical fact?

"... under your control the Wailing Wall ... I agreed upon in Camp David that the Wailing Wall ..." [Discussion of this issue continued]

I wish the interviewer had pressed him on this last question. It's the first time I've heard Arafat apparently acknowledge that Herod's temple stood on the Temple Mount. But in what we're given of the interview he he doesn't give a straight answer to that question "Is that a historical fact?" There are an awful lot of ellpses throughout, but they seem to represent pauses in speech rather than edited text. What he seems to be saying, as far as I can make sense of it, is that Jews would not be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount on the grounds that, although Herod's temple stood there and there is archaeological evidence to prove it, there is no surviving archaeological record of Solomon's temple.

As for all the stuff about Salem, Melchizedek, and Egypt, whatever he's trying to say is not clearly expressed. I could make a guess or two as to where he's heading with it, but I'd rather not. I hope interviewers continue to push him to clarify what he means.