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Skriven 2004-11-11 14:14:26 av Alan Hess
Ärende: Arafat the monster
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Boston.com     

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 to early
graves.

In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, hanged
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 have said, on hearing the
first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless his soul."

God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! 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 and
pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and
stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred
since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a creature so evil --
as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but
God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity.

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 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.

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 Ramallah, "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" -- was heartfelt:

"I remember well when the Israelis re-conquered the West Bank more than two
years ago, how they drove their tanks and bulldozers into Mr. Arafat's
headquarters, trapping him in a few rooms, and throwing a military curtain
around Ramallah. I remember how Palestinians admired his refusal to flee under
fire. They told me: `Our leader is sharing our pain, we are all under the same
siege.' And so was I." Such is the state of journalism at the BBC, whose
reporters do not seem to have any trouble reporting, dry-eyed, on the plight of
Arafat's victims. (That is, when they mention them -- which Plett's teary bon
voyage to Arafat did not.)

And what about those victims? Why were they scarcely remembered in this Arafat
death watch?

How is it possible to reflect on Arafat's most enduring legacy -- the rise of
modern terrorism -- without recalling the legions of men, women, and children
whose lives he and his followers destroyed? If Osama bin Laden were on his
deathbed, would we neglect to mention all those he murdered 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 the
introduction of warfare against children. On one black date in May 1974, three
PLO terrorists slipped from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Ma'alot.
They murdered two parents and a child whom they found at home, then seized a
local school, taking more than 100 boys and girls hostage and threatening to
kill them unless a number of imprisoned terrorists were released. When Israeli
troops attempted a rescue, the terrorists exploded hand grenades and opened
fire on the students. By the time the horror ended, 25 people were dead; 21 of
them were children.

Thirty years later, no one speaks of Ma'alot anymore. The dead children have
been forgotten. Everyone knows Arafat's name, but who ever recalls the names of
his victims?

So let us recall them: Ilana Turgeman. Rachel Aputa. Yocheved Mazoz. Sarah
Ben-Shim'on. Yona Sabag. Yafa Cohen. Shoshana Cohen. Michal Sitrok. Malka
Amrosy. Aviva Saada. Yocheved Diyi. Yaakov Levi. Yaakov Kabla. Rina Cohen.
Ilana Ne'eman. Sarah Madar. Tamar Dahan. Sarah Soper. Lili Morad. David Madar.
Yehudit Madar. The 21 dead children of Ma'alot -- 21 of the thousands of who
died at Arafat's command.

Jeff Jacoby's e-mail address is jacoby@globe.com. 
+ Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
 

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