And when Mr Barak's otherwise big concessions stopped short of yielding Palestinian sovereignty over Jerusalem's Haram al-Sharif, where the great mosques stand, Arafat got the pretext he needed.
To compound Mr Abbas's problems, tensions rose this week in one of the most volatile spots in the world, the Haram al-Sharif Mosque, called the Temple Mount by Israelis, in occupied East Jerusalem, holy to both Jews and Muslims.