In a poll released this month by the Kafr Kassem weekly Al Rabiya, [Ahmed Tibi] was voted the most popular Arab personality, beating such veteran politicians as Hadash MK Tawfik Zayyad and Shfaram Mayor Ibrahim Nimr Hussein, head of the Forum of Arab Council Heads. For many Arabs, Tibi personifies their ambitions - wealth, power, education and the confidence to deal with Jews on equal terms. In the wake of the PLO-Israel accord, Tibi says he is Palestinian and Israeli and is proud of both.

Hadassah administrators said Tibi injured [David Rothstein]. A hospital spokesman said Tibi arrived at the entrance and failed to show his identity card. The guard told Tibi that anybody who refused to allow a search of his briefcase could be a terrorist. "So, Tibi hit him with his case on the skull and left him on the floor bleeding," the spokesman said. "He needed several stitches."

[Haim Ramon] and Tibi developed a close friendship. "I know {Tibi} for many years," Ramon says. "I struck up a friendship with him and struck up a relationship with the PLO. In the last period that we worked together, in all the things we did, Tibi fulfilled a positive and vital role. He had an unusual access to PLO, from [Yasser Arafat] to those around him. All that we did, we kept in complete secrecy. I appreciate what he is doing."