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As I watched the French and Egyptian military honor guards escort the body of the Egyptian, Abdel-Rahman
Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, better known as Yasser Arafat, back to his Cairo funeral and Ramallah burial I was
saddened at the reverence given to such a merciless, depraved monster and murderer. Many European and Arab nations muttered
about the low level minimal diplomatic delegation sent by the United States to the funeral. The question should really be
why the United States sent any diplomatic delegation at all to the funeral of this despotic thug. Perhaps we should also send
the minimum political delegation to the funerals of Saddam and bin Laden.
As the Liberal elites of world waxed nostalgic
and BBC journalists became misty eyed in their reporting of his passing, one has to wonder at a world that mourns the passing
of such a man. The United Nations flag was lowered to half staff as Secretary-General Kofi Annan led a tribute in the General
Assembly, honors usually reserved for sitting heads of state. Jacque Chirac proudly, and in his own words, "bowed down to
the body of Arafat to pay homage" and referred to his as "a man of courage and conviction."
Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi of Japan praised Arafat for his efforts on behalf of "peace and his people." Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany
was mournful that "it was not granted to Yasser Arafat to complete his life's work." Jimmy Carter described him as "the father
of the modern Palestinian nationalist movement. A powerful human symbol and forceful advocate, Palestinians united behind
him in their pursuit of a homeland." He went on to describe his "indispensable leadership to a revolutionary movement" and
lamented that Arafat had been excluded from peace negotiations in recent years.
My outrage is nearly indescribable.
The
truth is that Yasser Arafat is the father of modern terrorism. He pioneered the tactics of terror that have been enthusiastically
practiced and pursued throughout the Middle East over the last half century; hostage taking, the killing of children, the
slaughter of innocents for political purposes, airline and ship hijackings, the machine gunning at airports, suicide bombings
and civilian massacres.
The descriptions of the individual atrocities would fill volumes, but a select few are worth
mentioning. Arafat personally ordered the execution of American Ambassador to Sudan, Cleo No'l, charges des affaires George
Moore and the Belgium aid, Guy Eid in Khartoum. He is also responsible for death of some 100 U.S. citizens. During the twelve
year civil war in Lebanon entire villages of Christians like Damour were massacred, the residents chopped into pieces with
machetes on his orders. More than 10,000 were slaughtered by Arafat's PLO in that village alone. During his reign of terror
he and his minions were responsible for the death of tens of thousands of Christians, Israelis, and fellow Arabs and the cruel
maiming of thousands more. Arafat orchestrated the hostage taking and murder of eleven Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich
before a horrified world audience. And the heart wrenching stories of the pointed slaughter of civilians including pregnant
women, the old and little children in Israel are endless.
Despite his advancing years, increasing mental instability
and blood spattered Nobel Peace Prize; the Palestinian leader continued his support of terror to the very end. After the outbreak
of the violence in September 2000, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Arafat's faction, Fatah, coordinated together under the umbrella
of the "Nationalist and Islamic Forces," led by Fatah. They were united in one goal. To kill as many Israelis as possible
by whatever means necessary. Arafat never ceased the weapons smuggling, the payoffs to the families of suicide bombers, the
financing of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the looting of billions of dollars designated for the Palestinian people, and his
praise of the late Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin and Saddam Hussein.
The quotes of Yasser Arafat are a priceless look into
his soul. "We know only one word — jihad! Jihad, jihad, jihad! Whoever does not like it can drink from the Dead Sea
or from the Sea of Gaza." (Bethlehem — Oct. 1996). "We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely
Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion... We Palestinians
will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem" (Stockholm in 1996). "People aren't attracted to speeches, but rather
to bullets" (from his early days). The man who uttered such quotes never seriously sought peace and spurned all avenues and
opportunities to gain his stated goal of Palestinian statehood.
"I've never before seen so much cleverness, blood and
filth all together in one man." said Constantin Munteaunu, a communist Romanian general assigned to teach Arafat and the Palestinian
Liberation Organization operations in deception and influence designed to persuade the West into granting the organization
recognition (as quoted by Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the former head of Romanian intelligence.) Arafat was no Islamist and
delighted in flouting its dogma, but cleverly used the teachings and beliefs of Islam to inspire the vicious hatred and fanaticism
of the Palestinian cult of death and its infamous suicide bombers. Now Arafat is to be honored with a shrine and a mosque
at his burial site contributing yet another stain to "the religion of peace."
Unfortunately, Yasser Arafat's legacy
of death will continue long after he is gone. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades released this statement. "Zionist Israel and the
government of (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon are responsible for the assassination of our leader by putting him under
siege," Announcing a state of high-alert across the Palestinian territories, it called on people to "hit out and strike the
occupation everywhere. This crime will not go without punishment."
And what can be said of the 'cause' that this man
championed? Couched in the language of liberation and the struggle for a homeland, it was a thinly veiled crusade to slaughter
Jews at every opportunity and orchestrate the destruction of the state of Israel. Perhaps Zahir Muhsein, a former PLO executive
committee member, stated it best in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw on March 31, 1977.
The Palestinian
people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of
Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese.
Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national
interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism."
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