Yasser Arafat is Finally Dead

http://www.progressiveconservatism.blogspot.com ^ | 11/13/04 | Mark Radulich

[markkind]

Probably the single biggest impediment to peace in the Middle East was the President of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat. I do not make this claim lightly. In the years since the state of Israel was declared (May 14, 1948) many offers were made to the Palestinians to have a home of their own. As a matter of fact, when the United Nations opted to partition the land into Arab and Jewish territories, the Israeli’s accepted it, once in 1937 and again in 1948. However, the Arabs rejected the plan for a home of their own both times citing the expulsion or outright extinction of the Jews as their top priority.

Alan Dershowitz, author of “The Case For Israel” states, “As soon as Israel declared its independence, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon attacked it, with help from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Libya. Arab armies, with the help of Palestinian terrorists, determined to destroy the new Jewish state and exterminate its population, (p. 75).

The Israeli War of Independence ended with Egypt and Jordan capturing land, Israel capturing more land than it was allotted and the Palestinians still had no home. Despite two more wars in the region and thousands of terrorist attacks that have killed countless innocent civilians (both Arab and Israeli) the Israeli’s have offered the Palestinians a “Two State” solution which could have brought the beginnings of peace. However, and this is where Arafat comes in, these offers of peace have been summarily rejected in favor of escalated violence. The most heinous rejection came from Arafat himself in 2001. Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia mediated a peace deal between in 2000 between Bill Clinton/Ehud Barak (Israeli Prime Minister) and Yasser Arafat. According to Dershowitz, it went down like this:

Bandar, who has been a Saudi Diplomat in Washington for 20 years and is a high-ranking member of the royal family, served as a crucial intermediary between Arafat and the Clinton Administration. He, like nearly everyone else, was surprised at Barak’s “remarkable” offer that gave the Palestinian state “about 97% of the occupied territories,” the Old City of Jerusalem other than the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, and $30 billion in compensation for the refugees…no better offer from Israel was possible…Bandar emphasized (to Arafat) that the Arabs had always told the Americans that if “you get us a deal that’s OK on Jerusalem and we’re going, too.” Bandar laid out the options to Arafat: “Either you take this deal or we go to war,” …Despite Arafat’s promises that he would take the deal if Saudi Arabia and Egypt gave him cover…Arafat rejected the deal and flew home without offering any counterproposals or amendments. As the negotiations faltered, Arafat ordered his terrorist leaders to ratchet up the violence, (pg. 119).

Bandar went on to call Arafat’s rejection of these accords as, “a crime against the Palestinians-in fact against the entire region.”

Now the criminal is finally dead. It is still a mystery as to what he actually died from. This from ABC News Online, “Internet web sites are spilling over with speculation that Mr. Arafat, who died in a French hospital on Thursday, had anything from stomach cancer or a rare blood disorder to AIDS - an idea ridiculed by Palestinian officials. A top Hamas official who was poisoned by Israeli agents but survived accused Israel of poisoning Mr. Arafat, a theory, which his private doctor did not rule out despite being discounted by the Palestinian Foreign Minister.”

With Arafat out of the way there will be an opportunity for the Palestinian leadership to make progress where Arafat only brought death and war. This from Allister Heath at Scotland on Sunday, “The ball is now quite clearly in the court of Arafat’s successors. They are a mixed bunch: Ahmed Qurei, his prime minister, will remain in his job and could be amenable to change; another relative moderate, Mahmoud Abbas, a former prime minister who resigned because of Arafat’s meddling, is the new chairman of the PLO - it will be up to him to renounce violence. But that will not be easy, given that the new leader of Fatah is Farouk Kaddoumi, a hardliner who lives in exile. Finally, the speaker of the Palestinian assembly, Rahwi Fattouh, has become the caretaker president of the Palestinian Authority, the weak and corrupt body established by the Oslo peace process to govern Gaza and the West Bank. It is his job to organize an election within 60 days; its result will determine the future of the region.”

Let’s hope for all parties involved that Arafat’s death will be the much-needed sign of hope for a region riddled with war and corruption.