Writing in the Irish Times, Michael Jansen examines whether a third intifada has begun a decade after Yasser Arafat’s death. According to her:
The death of Arafat, “Mr Palestine”, at 75 on November 11th, 2004, marked an end to the era of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation by political and armed means.
Did Palestinian terror end with the death of Arafat as this seems to suggest? A simple look at the statistics and the death toll to the present day tells its own story.
Indeed, the rest of the article virtually whitewashes Arafat’s terrorism, lionizing him as a successful leader and statesman despite stating that “both armed struggle and negotiations have failed.”
And why the failure?
[Arafat’s] belief that the Oslo accords meant Israel would end its occupation was undermined by continuing settlement construction.
Oslo’s failure to deliver independence prompted the second intifada, Israel’s 2002 re-occupation of Palestinian-administered West Bank cities and towns, and the imprisonment until death of Arafat in his bomb-devastated Ramallah headquarters.
So the failure of Oslo is portrayed as a result of “continuing settlement construction” and not the wave of terror that Arafat unleashed against Israeli civilians. Typically, Israel is held solely responsible for breakdown of the peace process in Jansen’s eyes.
Ultimately, Yasser Arafat looks like a Palestinian hero in Michael Jansen’s eyes, which seem to be tightly shut when it comes to Arafat’s terrorism and enormous leadership failings.
[sc:graybox ]You can send your considered comments to the Irish Times to remind its readers of Yasser Arafat’s true nature – [email protected] – remembering to include your full name, postal address and telephone numbers (day and evening) to stand a chance of publication in the letters page.
Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com, Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
