www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/11/arafat_the_monster -> www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/11/arafat_the_monster/
The Boston Globe JEFF JACOBY Arafat the monster By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | November 11, 2004 YASSER ARAFAT died at age 75, lying in bed surrounded by familiar faces. He left this world peacefully, unlike the thousands of victims he sent t o early graves. ADVERTISEMENT In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, han ged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world, George Bush would not hav e said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless hi s soul." Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools an d pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a c reature so evil -- as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eterni ty. Arafat always inspired flights of nonsense from Western journalists, and his last two weeks were no exception. Derek Brown wrote in The Guardian that Arafat's "undisputed courage as a guerrilla leader" was exceeded only "by his extraordinary courage" as a peace negotiator. But it is an odd kind of courage that expresses itself in shooting unarmed victims -- or in signing peace accords and then fla grantly violating their terms. Another commentator, columnist Gwynne Dyer, asked, "So what did Arafat do right?" The answer: He drew worldwide attention to the Palestinian caus e, "for the most part by successful acts of terror." In other words, but chering innocent human beings was "right," since it served an ulterior p olitical motive. No doubt that thought brings daily comfort to all those who were forced to bury a child, parent, or spouse because of Arafat's "successful" terrorism. Some journalists couldn't wait for Arafat's actual death to begin weeping for him. Take the BBC's Barbara Plett, who burst into tears on the day he was airlifted out of the West Bank. "When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound," Plett reported from Rama llah, "I started to cry." Normal people don't weep for brutal murderers, but Plett made it clear that her empathy for Arafat -- whom she praised as "a symbol of Palestinian unity, steadfastness, and resistance" -- wa s heartfelt: "I remember well when the Israelis re-conquered the West Bank more than t wo years ago, how they drove their tanks and bulldozers into Mr Arafat' s headquarters, trapping him in a few rooms, and throwing a military cur tain around Ramallah. I remember how Palestinians admired his refusal to flee under fire. Why were they scarcely remembered in this A rafat death watch? How is it possible to reflect on Arafat's most enduring legacy -- the ris e of modern terrorism -- without recalling the legions of men, women, an d children whose lives he and his followers destroyed? If Osama bin Lade n were on his deathbed, would we neglect to mention all those he murdere d on 9/11? It would take an encyclopedia to catalog all of the evil Arafat committed . But that is no excuse for not trying to recall at least some of it. Perhaps his signal contribution to the practice of political terror was t he introduction of warfare against children. On one black date in May 19 74, three PLO terrorists slipped from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Ma'alot. They murdered two parents and a child whom they found a t home, then seized a local school, taking more than 100 boys and girls hostage and threatening to kill them unless a number of imprisoned terro rists were released. When Israeli troops attempted a rescue, the terrori sts exploded hand grenades and opened fire on the students. Everyone knows Arafat's name, but who ever recalls t he names of his victims? The 21 dead children of Ma'alot -- 21 of th e thousands of who died at Arafat's command.
|
http://csua.com/feed/