In his statement today, Mr. Arafat reiterated previous assurances -- including recognizing Israel's right to exist within secure boundaries.
When we secure boundaries we give ourselves the chance to find some headspace, honour ourselves and schedule in some "me time".
Above all, he set about selling a seductive idea of what might hold an Iranian nation together in the absence of secure boundaries.
We're always being lectured by academics and psychologists that sport is about competition within secure boundaries, and every so often they are right.
Getting lost among these 250 acres is part of the joy, and you are in secure boundaries, never too far from an exit.
With the adversaries now even more polarized and Hamas vowing to intensify its violence, Mr. Sharon's go-it-alone approach to what he argues will be more secure boundaries may increasingly appeal to Israelis.
Mr. Sharon says that Israel needs to draw more secure boundaries, and that if it does not act now, it risks an eventual, internationally imposed solution to the conflict that will deprive it of more territory.
In psychological theory, the "good enough mother" (or parent) creates a "facilitating" environment for her child, meeting all of the child's needs in the beginning and then gradually allowing greater autonomy, still within secure boundaries.
But at some level much of the public understands that he is engaged in the greatest possible Zionist endeavor: building secure boundaries for a democratic Jewish state that doesn't rule over millions of Arabs, and in which Jewish Jerusalem is recognized by the Arabs and the world as the capital of Israel.
Before 1945, forceful territorial conquest was largely seen as legitimate: After all, states depended on territory for their security and wealth, and thus seizing territory to augment natural resources, expand their population, or build more secure boundaries, was a tempting prospect.
