Jeff Jacoby brings two examples:
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 flagrantly violating their terms.
Another commentator, columnist Gwynne Dyer, asked, "So what did Arafat do right?" The answer: He drew worldwide attention to the Palestinian cause, "for the most part by successful acts of terror." In other words, butchering innocent human beings was "right," since it served an ulterior political 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.
More:
– CNN’s special page has a quote from the late Ra’is that conveys the opposite of what his life was all about: "The battle for peace is the most difficult battle of our lives.”
– Tom Gross says Arafat got the ‘Princess Di treatment’ in the British media, which is entirely consistent with their history of adoring coverage:
For example, one BBC profile in the summer of 2002… described him as a “hero” and “an icon.” It spoke of him as having “performer’s flair,” “charisma and style,” and “personal courage.” He was not only “respectable,” but “triumphant” and “the stuff of legends.”
– David Gerstman fisks Washington Post coverage
– AP’s timeline of Arafat’s life was very widely reprinted, but it doesn’t note any of the terror attacks he was responsible for, so one can only wonder what kind of terror he ‘renounced’ on Dec. 12, 1988…
— Edmonton Sun headline: ‘Patriarch of Palestine dead’
‘Palestine’? Not a nation. But it might have been if the ‘patriarch’ hadn’t rejected that offer.
