Secretary Powell--Don't Meet with Arafat

TODAY, at a bus station near Jerusalem's Mehane Yehuda market, a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing six and wounding scores more. The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a military wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, have claimed responsibility. Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to meet with Arafat tomorrow. The official White House reaction to today's bombing is that "the president will not be deterred from seeking peace despite this attack."

But in the wake of this bombing--and the new documentation showing Arafat's hand in directing Palestinian terrorism aimed at Israel--it would be obscene for the American secretary of state to meet with Arafat. It's time to call a halt to America's participation in this deadly peace process.

William Kristol is editor of The Weekly Standard.