Columnists describing an ugly legacy:
GANGSTER WITH POLITICS — Bret Stephens:
The ra’is, as he is commonly spoken of among Palestinians, may basically have been a gangster with politics, but he was also one of the 20th century’s great political illusionists. He conjured a persona, a cause, and indeed a people virtually ex nihilo, then rallied much of the world to his side. Now that he is dead, or nearly so — news reports vary as of this writing — it will be interesting to see what becomes of his legacy.
DICTATORS’ BEST FRIEND — Zev Chafetz:
Arafat realized early that Arab dictators would pay to keep the Palestinian issue alive because it gave them an all-purpose diversion from the disaster they were wreaking on their own societies. He became custodian of the Palestinian grievance for everyone from Egypt’s Nasser to the Saudi royal family, from Libya’s Khadafi to Saddam Hussein. Taking on Israel put Arafat in the big leagues. He became a hero to the Soviet bloc and, later, to European "progressives" who never really have seen the need for a Jewish state.
MANIPULATOR OF THE MEDIA — David Frum:
As Yasser Arafat reviews his life from his Paris hospital bed, what do you think he thinks? Does he regard himself as a success or not?… Arafat’s number one reason for confidence: his command of the world press. Israel may win battle after battle on the ground, but it is losing the battle for global public opinion outside the United States. From the silence concealing Arafat’s own personal corruption to the suppression of unwanted images like those of Palestinians celebrating on 9/11, Arafat has cajoled and intimidated much of the world media into covering the Middle East as he wishes it covered…
Thirty years of Palestinian terrorism have dulled the world’s moral outrage. At Nuremberg, the victorious Allies hanged German generals for atrocities against civilian populations. But atrocities against civilians are the only kind of war Arafat knows.
INSPIRER OF 9/11 — Chicago Sun-Times:
He might have been president of a real nation — in the mid-1990s the Palestinian Authority was printing up postage stamps with Arafat’s picture on them, to be used in the state that seemed so tantalizingly within reach. Arafat tossed it away. The man who created modern terror ended up unable to let it go. Arafat was responsible for the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, and too many individual evil acts to begin to list. The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were no doubt inspired by his efforts.
As terrible a toll as Arafat extracted from those he saw as enemies, the crime he committed against his own people is also monstrous. It was a crime that can be measured in millions of dollars siphoned away by his corrupt Palestinian Authority while his people suffered grinding poverty. A crime that can be measured in years lost that could have been used productively building a Palestinian state. A crime measured in thousands of lives lost and even more ruined.
TWO-FACED OBSTACLE TO PEACE — Uri Dromi, who served as Yitzhak Rabin’s spokesman:
A few days after the signing ceremony of the Cairo Accords in May 1994 handing over Gaza and Jericho to the Palestinians, Arafat gave a speech in Johannesburg at a local mosque. Believing he was among friends only, he talked about the agreement he had just signed: "This agreement, I am not considering it more than the agreement which had been signed between our prophet Muhammad and Qureish."
For those not versed in Islamic history, the agreement, also known as the al-Khudaibiya agreement, was a 10-year peace treaty between Mohammad and the tribe of Qureish. After two years, when Mohammad had improved his military position, he tore up the agreement and slaughtered the Qureishites.
Now that Arafat seems to be on the way out, the big question is whether he has been the sole obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, or whether he simply has been representing a phenomenon common to all Palestinian leaders.
Can we at last sit down with people who, instead of double-talking, will for once keep their word? Personally, I’m not holding my breath.
DISASTROUS LEADER — Lalita Panicker, in The Times of India:
He may recover and come back to Ramallah, but Arafat will never again control the destiny of the Palestinians as he has done so far. And this is cause for celebration for the Palestinians. His record after returning to the West Bank and Gaza has been disastrous. Dressed in ridiculous battle fatigues, he has demonstrated that he can only work in a combat situation. He neither wants nor can he deliver peace.
Arafat’s lasting and most pernicious legacy is that he has contributed to completely changing the Palestinian psyche. The Palestinians were once the most secular, tolerant, and educated people in the Arab world. Today, Palestinian classrooms have become the hotbeds of recruitment for jihad. As a result, an entire younger generation has grown up on a diet of hate and fanaticism.
