by Chris Otton
JERUSALEM, Aug 3 (AFP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will mark his 75th birthday this week in the midst of the biggest challenge to his authority since returning from exile a decade ago but with no sign that he is about to slope off into retirement.
Arafat, who was born in Cairo on August 4, 1929, has spent the last two and a half years of a rollercoaster life confined to his battered West Bank headquarters courtesy of the Israeli army whose government has declared him persona non grata.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is also in his 75th year, recently declared his arch-enemy would "stay in Ramallah for the next 45 years".
But while his travails at the hands of the Israelis and Arab leaders whom he has managed to see off over the decades are nothing new, Arafat has also had to contend with an unravelling security crisis in the Palestinian territories that has posed a direct threat to his authority.
Militants who have traditionally supported Arafat recently forced the man known by his nom-de-guerre as Abu Ammar to backtrack over the appointment of his cousin Mussa to a key security post after staging mass protests.
And criticism of the widespread corruption within his Palestinian Authority is growing by the day among his people who elected him their leader in the one and only Palestinian elections in 1996.
According to Barry Rubin, the author of a recent biography of Arafat, the ultimate symbol of Palestinian nationalism is not about to be tossed aside by his people.
"He is more challenged internally than he has been in many years, probably since the 1970s, but he is not in danger of being overthrown," Rubin told AFP.
"He still retains too many assets and his opposition is deeply divided ... I believe he will definitely continue to be the Palestinian leader as long as he lives."
Arafat has been synonymous with the Palestinian national cause since he formed his Fatah movement back in 1958 and then was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 1969.
The high point of a tumultuous career came in December 1994 when he received the Nobel Peace Prize after signing the Oslo autonomy accords with then Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin.
He made a triumphant return in the same year to the Palestinian territories after spending more than a quarter of a century in exile in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Tunis.
Ten years on, ostracised by an Israeli government which has hinted at his assassination and under mounting pressure to cede power to his premier Ahmed Qorei, Arafat's future has rarely looked bleaker.
But Rubin said that Arafat's survival instinct should never be underestimated.
"Arafat always has tricks up his sleeve. His abilities are declining but by no means gone. But his central strategy is to maneuver endlessly, promise reform without doing it, come up with new plans, attack his enemies one day and woo them the next.
"Again, it would be very mistaken to see his career as being at an end. There are at least five major factions contending for power and he still holds the reins -- he just usually chooses not to use them."
Some observers have said that the continued confinement of a man who was once the most frequent visitor to the White House in the Bill Clinton years has led to a dulling of his political antenna.
Negotiations minister Saeb Erakat, one of the most frequent visitors to Arafat's offices which are known as the Muqataa, insisted however that "the antenna is very well-focused."
While acknowledging that his confinement has had an impact, Erakat said Arafat had excised recent doubts about his health and remained fully in control of events.
"It's a very difficult and unacceptable situation for him but he is very well focused and in good health," the minister told AFP.