Yasser Arafat dead

another stupid post. he and Rabin deserved the nobel peace prize, because they were able to reach peace and a palestinian country, wich would in our time be one of the most important things, because it would also be a symbol for peace between the western world and the muslim world. if they would not have killed Rabin, there would have been a very good chance for this peace to come true and rest, a better chance than we've ever seen before or after. both of them deserved the nobel peace prize a lot more than many many others who got it. the fact that there is still no peace there doesn't change that. to say that was a stupid nobel prize is arrogant, especially if you say it now, that Arafat (who fought all his last years for peace) has died.

me too.

Not surprising sadly. You'd think they'd at least act with a bit of decorum regarding the situation for once.

As a Palestenian, I am really sad for such a loss, although some times i disagreed with his policy, but it seems to be a world wide agreement that the man was worthy of respect. i respected him so much, he was a true fighter and a genuine leader.

I don't know if he can be ever replaced in the hearts of palestenians, i hope he found a better, more fair place to live now.

There's a huge irony in all those world leaders coming or being represented at his funeral to say what a great man he was when most of them let him and the Palestinians down.

I wish he'd had as much real support alive as he's getting official respect now that he's dead.

Ponrauil

Most of my friends have told me at one time or another that Arafat's a terrorist, but I always kinda felt sorry for him. The Israelis treated him and his country really badly.

Adrian

_______________________________________________

30 years ago, Arafat's Al Fatah had a terrorist arm called Black September which was responsible for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, a brutal deed that shocked the world. Still fewer know that in March 1973, Arafat ordered a Black September attack on the Saudi embassy in Sudan, where Ambassador Cleo Noel, Deputy Chief of Mission George C. Moore and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid were taken hostage at a reception. They were brutally murdered, said to have been shot in a way that made their deaths especially agonizing.

These murders were front-page news for days, but Arafat's role is little known because it was discovered in super-secret communications intercepts of the National Security Agency. It was kept secret for years until James J. Welsh, who was the NSA's Palestinian analyst, decided that his obligation to let the truth be known outweighed his pledge to keep his work secret. He revealed that he worked on the intercepts of Arafat ordering the murder.

Over the years, Arafat's confrontational style invited political disaster. At the United Nations, a uniformed Arafat appeared wearing a pistol holster. In 1982 PLO commandos at West Beirut, pushed to the sea by the Israelis, were evacuated under supervision of United Nations forces in a "victory" that celebrated little more than their survival of a nine-week siege. During the Gulf War of 1991 Arafat backed Saddam Hussein and then watched as Western and Arab armies quickly rolled over the hapless Iraqis. By 1993, with its Soviet sponsors gone and its Arab allies cool, the PLO was bankrupt, friendless, and unable to control the intifada that had wracked the occupied territories for five years.

Yet, at his career's nadir, Arafat somehow triumphed. The Islamic fundamentalism spreading in the Palestinian ranks made Arafat look relatively moderate to the Israeli leadership. The Israelis finally negotiated with Arafat. Soon he was at the White House shaking the hand of Yitzhak Rabin - with whom he would share the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. The ancient city of Jericho became the center of an embryonic Palestinian state, and Arafat was photographed weeping at his homecoming in Gaza. The world, it seemed, believed that the peace process could succeed and that the promise of a Palestinian homeland could become a reality.

In 1995 Rabin was assassinated - not by an Arab extremist or PLO gunman, but by a right-wing Israeli - and the subsequent election fell to the right-wing group Likud and its Americanized leader, Benyamin Netanyahu. The new prime minister immediately put the brakes on the peace process, leaving Arafat to govern a legally and politically ambiguous region filled with angry, disappointed Palestinians. Governance proved to be even more difficult than armed rebellion. Intensely corrupt, the Palestine Authority demonstrated little ability to manage civic projects or anything else

Well, this is history

______________

And this is opinion

(Oriana Fallaci "rage and pride"

"What do I feel for the kamikaze that died with them? No respect. No pity. No, not even pity. I, who in every case, end up with giving in to pity. I have always found kamikaze unlikable, that is, those that suicide to kill others, starting with those Japanese of WWII. I never considered them par to the Italian patriot, Pietro Micca, who in order to block the arrival of enemy troops, ignited the ammunition storage and died in the explosion at the Citadel in Turin. I have never considered them soldiers, and even less do I consider them martyrs or heroes, as Mr. Arafat, hollering and spitting saliva, defined them to me in 1972. (That is when I interviewed him in Amman, where his Marshals trained the terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof). I considered them fatuous and nothing else. Fatuous because instead of searching for glory by means of the movies or politics or sport, they seek it in the death of themselves and others. A death that, instead of an Oscar or a Minister’s seat or a trophy, will bring them (they believe) admiration. And, in the case of those that pray to Allah, a place in the Heaven described in the Coran: "the Heaven where heroes screw the virgins (Uri)". I bet that they are also physically fatuous. I’m looking at the photo of two kamikaze of whom I spoke in my “Insciallah”: a romance novel that begins with the destruction of the American base (over 400 dead) and the French base ( over 350 dead) in Beirut. They had these photos taken before they went to die, and before dieing they had been to the barber shop. Look at what a gorgeous hair cut. What creamed mustaches, groomed little beard, flirtatious sideburns…

Eh! Who knows how Mr. Arafat would fry if he heard me. You know that between him and I there is little or no love lost. He has never forgiven me neither for the heated differences of opinion that we had during that encounter nor for my judgement of him expressed in my book “Interview with History”. As for me, I have never forgiven him anything. Including the fact that an Italian journalist, imprudently introducing himself as “my friend” found himself with a gun pointed at his heart. Therefore, we don’t speak anymore. It’s a shame. Because if I were to meet him again, I would scream in his face who the martyrs and heroes are. I would scream: Illustrious Mr. Arafat, the martyrs are the passengers of the four hijacked planes that were transformed into human bombs. Among them the four year old child that disintegrated in the second tower. Illustrious Mr. Arafat, the martyrs are the employees that worked in the two towers and at the Pentagon. Illustrious Mr. Arafat, the martyrs are the firemen who died trying to save them. And do you know who are the heroes? The passengers of the flights that should have landed on the White House and that instead crashed in a Pennsylvania countryside because they rebelled. For them, yes there should be a Paradise, Illustrious Mr. Arafat. The problem is that now you are the perpetual Head of State. You are acting like a Monarch. You visit the Pope, affirm that you do not like terrorism, send your condolences to Bush. In your chameleon ability of inconsistency, you would be capable of replying that I am right. But let’s change topic. I am very ill, it is known, and talking with the Arafats I get a fever. "

___________-


me too.[/quote]

Me not

Sharon is a terrorist but Arafat is too a terrorist. Not an angel.

What country?

Crash, Adrian is a yank - you cant expect him to be good at geography (or international politics for that matter)


Adrian my son you have just demonstrated one of the biggest American stereotypes, and amused me greatly. Thanks!

Maybe, but instead of just laughing I try to make him think for himself.

You are such a daydreamer, Crash, we don’t have that kind of technology yet.