Yasser Arafat in past and future history

11/11/2004

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by Moderator @ 01:12 PM CST [Link]

Replies: 9 comments

we don't have to wait for history to judge him. most of the world's leaders are already whitewashing this mass murderer, calling him 'courageous', 'a man of peace', 'a great leader', and other such undeserved accolades. it is a travesty of truth and justice to refer to this monster as anything other than what he was...an unrepentant terrorist whose political policies were based on slaughtering innocent civilians, not only in Israel but in Jordan and Lebanon. he should be buried with a pig, except that would be an insult to the animal!

Posted by mike levine @ 11/12/2004 09:20 AM CST

The only people who demonise Arafat are the Israelis and the Americans. This should tell us something about the likely verdict of history.

He was a man with many flaws, but also the undisputed popular leader of his people and a symbol of their legitimate national aspirations. It's the people and the aspirations which are really offensive to the Israeli right, to avoid acknowledging this they caricature Arafat as a monster.

The Palestinian struggle is not about one man, and it will continue until the Israelis are brave and honest enough to offer a just peace.

Posted by Chris @ 11/12/2004 05:45 PM CST

I think he was not a "man of peace". He was certainly "courageous" and a "leader" ("great" or not depens on what you mean with "great"). He was not a "mass murderer" and inside PLO he was one of the "moderates" (i.e. realistic). He must be judged by comparison with PFLF, DFLP and the rest of radical branches who try to kill him many times, not to say if you compare with Hamas and Yihad. In camp David he thought that the Barak proposal was not worthwile of a bloody palestinian civil war (that he would probably have lost because palestinian population mainly shared this view). He did enormous mistakes some of them criminal. He was utilized to sustain the mith of the "lost opportunity" that for some people justifies any current and future excess on Israel side. Now he is dead and history is a science wich tries to understand without judging. Each one of us have his opinion about him. Mine is much less black&white than Mike's one but all are legitimate as opinions. And we must work to not make this famous "lost opportunity" the last opportunity ever once he is no more there to be blamed.

Posted by Aleph @ 11/12/2004 06:24 PM CST

Instead of a eulogy:

The death of Arafat makes me feel hopeful, not sad or worried. He led his followers into a political dead end while he became the obstacle to change course. Arafat helped unify the Palestinians under one cause and generate world wide recognition for their problems and aspirations. He failed to capitalize on the world’s good will and do what true leaders do: compromise one’s personal goals for the benefit of their people.

Arafat’s cause has always been more about rejecting Israel than about a positive vision of better life for the Palestinians. Fifty-six years ago Israel started as a refugee state; it is now a powerhouse in technology, education, science and arts and has made these achievements under very demanding conditions. Arafat has refused to begin the building of a nation for his people, unless all of his claims (including the destruction of Israel) are satisfied. In retrospect, Arafat’s vision has been irresponsible and unrealistic; he has left the Palestinians with nothing, but a legacy of death worship and destruction.

Israel has made many mistakes with the Palestinians, but all of them have been debated in an open society. In contrast, the parties who had more at stake here, Arafat and the Palestinians, made monumentally greater mistakes, bordering on criminal acts. Under Arafat, Palestinian society was neither open nor free to debate these issues and mandate a change.

I hope that the Palestinians can seize the moment for opportunity now, see past Arafat’s failed vision and change direction. Israel will follow through. The US and Europe will follow through.

Zvigoldman@hotmail.com

Posted by Zvi Goldman @ 11/13/2004 07:43 PM CST

The now-departed Arafat’s personal quest to destroy the Jewish presence in the Middle East began as an Egyptian terrorist long before the state of Israel (or “the Palestinian people”) came into existence. On his murderous path to winning the Nobel Prize for Peace, he successfully brought terrorism to world attention, pioneering the innovation of hijacking and blowing up airplanes in the 1970's. As a direct result of his lifelong anti-Zionist campaign, hundreds of innocent men, women, and children from all over the world were slaughtered for the achievement of his political objectives.
Now, Osama bin Laden builds on the foundation built by Arafat. Arafat, one might surmise based upon the lesser known facts of the historical record, built on Hitler’s (Haj Amin Al Husseini, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem, had a well-documented relationship with the Third Reich and was Arafat's mentor). Hitler, of course, built on earlier long-standing antisemitic precedent.
Arafat's legacy is another significant chapter in the long history of violent antisemitism.

Posted by Dan @ 11/14/2004 01:01 AM CST

The now-departed Arafat’s personal quest to destroy the Jewish presence in the Middle East began as an Egyptian terrorist long before the state of Israel (or “the Palestinian people”) came into existence. On his murderous path to winning the Nobel Prize for Peace, he successfully brought terrorism to world attention, pioneering the innovation of hijacking and blowing up airplanes in the 1970's. As a direct result of his lifelong anti-Zionist campaign, hundreds of innocent men, women, and children from all over the world were slaughtered for the achievement of his political objectives.
Now, Osama bin Laden builds on the foundation built by Arafat. Arafat, one might surmise based upon the lesser known facts of the historical record, built on Hitler’s (Haj Amin Al Husseini, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem, had a well-documented relationship with the Third Reich and was Arafat's mentor). Hitler, of course, built on earlier long-standing antisemitic precedent.
Arafat's legacy is another significant chapter in the long history of violent antisemitism.

Posted by Dan @ 11/14/2004 01:01 AM CST

I hope with all my heart that there will now be peace in the middle east and all terriose are charged with murder
and the ppl from the muslim nations came to see them as murders and nothing more.

Posted by lorraine @ 11/15/2004 02:17 AM CST

Arafat had achieved recognition of Palestinian identity. He had given them recognition as a nation in the world. Perhaps this was really his sole achievement.He was an autocratic ruler, keeping the cards very close to his chest.

He had done very little to improve the standard of living of his people. Education of the younger generation was reduced to anti-Israel propaganda and hate. All in all, the Palestinians had suffered much under his rule. The corruption in the Palestinian Authority was rife and there was definite misappropriation of funds that were targeted for the Palestinian people. He was a master of survival and, even though he paid lip service to Israel's recognition, in practice he was indifferent to terrorist attacks against Israel's citizens. It is possible that he had no choice as he did not want to jeopardize his life at the hands of Palestinian terrorist groups.

His life style - frugal as it was despite the millions of dollars that he had in various investments all over Europe, endeared him to his people as the eternal revolutionary fighting for his peoples' liberation from the Israeli occupation. At least it appeared so especially after his death.

It will take a long time before Arafat's influence on his people can be assessed wih any accuracy.

One thing is certain and that is there will be great instability because he had never groomed anybody to take over from him when he was no longer able to rule.

Posted by Shimon Z. Klein @ 11/15/2004 01:41 PM CST

Yasser Arafat is effectively the father of the Palestinian nation. We tend to see in him the ruthless terrorist shoved down our brain by the american media but lets think for a minute: how else would would palestine react to to all the agresion of israel it not by what we call terrorism. What makes the diference between war and terrorism? Is it the technology we use to kill?

Posted by Virgilio Melgar @ 11/27/2004 06:23 AM CST

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