Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘arafat’

One of the world’s wealthiest terror widows, Suha Arafat, has gotten remarried… reportedly to a gold-digger after her considerable fortune:

According to rumors, Yasser Arafat’s widow marries Tunisian president’s brother-in-law, who was supposed to marry her sister, but chose Suha due to her large fortune.

What, you mean he wasn’t after her looks and charm?

Here I am on another Sunday night procrastinating going to sleep… because when I next wake up it will really be Monday and the weekend will be over. And there’s nothing more depressing than a Monday morning. So I’m determined to make it worse by being tired as a zombie. Makes perfect sense to me.

Anyway, this weekend did not rain as was predicted. In fact, it was sunny and beautiful. I hope everyone took advantage. Justin Trudeau sure did.

So what is it with the French and rejecting constitutions anyway? I think Chriac should simply insist on a Notwithstanding Clause.

Quote of the day: “President Bush has made a mistake in his show of support for Abbas (or Arafat in a Brooks Brothers Suit with better barber).” I never quite understood why Arafat, with all his millions, couldn’t afford to look better. Or, for that matter, why Suha never bought some sorely-needed plastic surgery. Oh, was that rude? I’m so sorry. I should know better than to insult dead terrorists. That would be uncivilized.

Speaking of terrorists, Abbas is making more threats, suggesting that suicide bombings “may be over” (yeah right) while threatening more if “progress” is not made. How, I wonder, does Abbas define “progress”? Israel is set to let 400 terrorists back on the streets, and the Palestinians are set to… do nothing but complain and launch more violent attacks, as usual. When was the last time the Palestinian side made any “gestures”?

On the home front, with Parliament set to get back to work tomorrow, amidst the scandals and non-confidence votes, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler dares to suggest that the government get some actual work done by passing proposed bills legalizing same-sex marriage and decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. A valid argument. We’re paying all these people to govern, it’s about time they get on with it. Of course, the Tories oppose both bills, but I wonder whether Stephen Harper is capable of trying to attack the issues, or if he’s programmed to a single note and will keep hammering away on the sponsorship scandal instead?

According to exit polls, Abbas won the Palestinian election with something like 66-70% of the vote. Now, backed with the legitimacy of a vote, Abbas can get serious about the buisness of funding and protecting terrorists and seeking to destroy Israel.

Of course, the day was marked by gunfire… shots into the air in celebration by Fatah gunmen. I admit I’ve never quite understood that one. Is it like firecrackers? Or is it done in order to be able to blame Israel for anyone killed accidentally by the stray bullets? Or both?

Tony Blair is in Israel holding meetings this week with Israeli and Palestinian leaders (separately, of course):

The centerpiece of Blair’s visit is his initiative for a conference in London focused on strengthening the new Palestinian leadership. Sharon said Tuesday that Israel will support the conference but will not attend. He said the conference is meant to influence the promotion of reforms in the PA, and to consolidate support for a sweeping plan to rehabilitate Gaza and the Palestinian economy.

Analysts are saying that Blair sees an opportunity with Arafat’s death and is trying to capitalize on it.

Blair sees an opportunity alright… but it has nothing to do with helping the Palestinians, and everything to do with his own political career.

Ever since Blair cast his lot with Bush by joining the campaign in Iraq, his political stock among Europeans and a good number of Britons has plummeted. The Israeli-Palestinian issue is his pet project to try to score back some brownie points.

And while he seems to be proceeding cautiously for the moment, I can’t help but think that Blair is wading into waters that are much too deep for him. I only hope the Israeli people don’t pay the price.

The Palestinian spokespeople claim it wasn’t an assassination attempt:

Yasser Arafat’s interim successor escaped injury in a Gaza gunfight triggered by hostile militants on Sunday as Palestinian officials set Jan. 9 for elections to replace the late president and avert a feared power vacuum.

[ . . . ]

The incident began after gunmen from Arafat’s splintered Fatah movement shouting “No to Abu Mazen” — Abbas’s nickname — marched by him as he stood outside the tent, paused and began firing shots into the air.

The gunmen’s rifles were pointed upwards, not at Abbas and Palestinian officials said it was not an assassination attempt.

Members of Arafat’s presidential guard hustled Abbas, 69, into the tent and threw him to the ground for his safety as the militants burst in. Chaos ensued as gunmen and bodyguards began shooting at each other. In the end, two bodyguards lay dead and four other Palestinians were wounded, medics said.

As gunfire blazed about him, Abbas was hustled to safety in his local office. The gunmen withdrew and no one was arrested.

“We were paying condolences. Emotions were high. There was random gunfire and pushing in the crowd,” a calm-looking Abbas told reporters at his office afterward.

I wonder if the anyone actually believes that. I’m betting Abbas doesn’t.

Arafat’s barely cold in his grave and it’s starting already. It appears that nobody will even wait out the “40 days of mourning” before starting a civil war. And in this kind of civil war, the winners will be the most violent, the least moderate, and the worst enemies of Israel.

What was that about an “opportunity for peace”, Mr. Bush?

Arafat was buried in Ramallah after a funeral in Cairo. The press is describing both as “chaotic”:

An Egyptian helicopter flew Arafat’s coffin from Egypt, where a funeral service was held, to his Muqata headquarters. The aircraft was quickly surrounding by a surging crowd of thousands chanting Arafat’s name.

Firing into the air, Palestinian security men struggled earlier to remove the coffin from the aircraft and then held on to it tight as they placed it on a vehicle that plied its way through a dense throng of weeping mourners.

“With our blood and soul we redeem you, Abu Ammar,” the crowd chanted, using the nom de guerre of their leader, who fought for decades for a state he never achieved.

At least nine Palestinians were wounded by shots fired by the security forces or gunmen. Medics said hundreds were treated after fainting or for minor injuries during the crush.

In the meantime, Ma’ariv has printed the details of Suha’s meeting with PA leaders before the announcement of Arafat’s death:

As soon as the delegation arrived in the French Capital, an extremely tense meeting was held between Suha and Arafat’s chief financial advisor and confidante, Mohmmanad Rashid, and the Palestinian leaders.

“The Palestinian people will never forgive you for what you are doing”, they told Suha. The Rais’s wife began crying and told them, after regaining her composure, that she cannot return to live in Gaza with their daughter: “She has no future there”.

Suha told the PA leaders that she was in need of financial security that would allow her to continue living in the same level she has been used to. “We will allow you to live in the same level”, one of the senior leaders told her, “But you must sign an agreement and reveal all of your husband’s bank accounts and investments, and enable the transfer of the funds that belong to the PA. Do not rob this money from the Palestinian people”.

At some point, the leaders even warned her that if she would refuse to sign the papers, “The Palestinian people all over the world will never give you peace and quiet”. She then conferred with her lawyers and family members, after which she returned to the room and signed the papers. As first revealed by NRG Maariv, she received a considerable portion of Arafat’s fortune.

So they paid her off to disappear, essentially. She must be so proud.

Canadian PM Paul Martin is sending Pierre Pettigrew to Arafat’s funeral to represent Canada.

I wish Canada would have the guts to boycott altogeher. But I suppose that’s unreasonable seeing as how the USA, the UK, the EU states, and just about everyone else is sending representation. Canada has never been willing to take a moral stand on anything else, so why would they now?

Martin is also calling for renewed peace efforts in the wake of Arafat’s death, perpetuating the myth that now that Arafat’s gone, the Palestinian people are suddenly ready to renounce terrorism and make peace:

“Chairman Arafat’s influence on regional and global events has been undeniable. While comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians was never attained in his lifetime, chairman Arafat’s efforts, along with those of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, were recognized in 1994 with the Nobel Peace Prize.”

This day is turning into one long gagging opportunity. Even as Israel makes conciliatory statements, the Palestinians are already blaming Arafat’s death on Israel and calling for a renewed wave of attacks, in what is sure to be an emerging power struggle for the Palestinian leadership where the repulsive mark of victory is the number of dead Jews each group can claim credit for:

Hamas’ top political leader, Khaled Mashaal, told Al-Jazeera television by telephone Thursday, “I hold Israel responsible for the crime of killing Abu Ammar [Arafat].” He offered no evidence.

[ . . . ]

“Yes, death is an act of God and a man the age of brother Abu Ammar may die a natural death, but all the circumstances which we have seen in the past two weeks and medical reports indicate that brother Abu Ammar had been poisoned,” Mashaal said.

[ . . . ]

“The loss of the great leader will increase our determination and steadfastness to continue Jihad and resistance against the Zionist enemy until victory and liberation is achieved,” Hamas said in statement.

The world just doesn’t get it. Arafat led his people towards hatred. He was a terrorist. He invented much of modern terrorism and he offered it as the only path to his people. None of that will be undone overnight by his death. In fact, with Hamas or the Islamic Jihad standing to gain power from this “tranisition”, things may get a whole lot worse before they get better.

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe doesn’t mince words in an editorial that discusses Arafat’s true legacy, as opposed to the nonsense we’re hearing from most media outlets about his “dreams of peace” and his symbolic heroism:

YASSER ARAFAT is dying at age 75, lying in bed surrounded by familiar faces. He will leave 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.

Read the whole thing.

I couldn’t have parodied it any worse than it actually was: Kofi Annan’s statement at the “offical” word of Arafat’s death:

“The Secretary-General was deeply moved to learn of the death of President Yasser Arafat. President Arafat was one of those few leaders who could be instantly recognized by people in any walk of life all around the world. For nearly four decades, he expressed and symbolized in his person the national aspirations of the Palestinian people,” spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement on Annan’s behalf.

The spokesman said Arafat would be remembered for leading the Palestinians in a “giant step” toward peace in signing the Oslo accords in 1993 and, “It is tragic that he did not live to see it fulfilled.”

“Now that he has gone, both Israelis and Palestinians, and the friends of both peoples throughout the world, must make even greater efforts to bring about the peaceful realization of the Palestinian right of self-determination,” the statement said.

The emphasis, of course, is mine.

I don’t know why it bothers me so much. Annan heads the United Nations, which in the past few decades has engaged in full-time Israel-bashing. Since 1947’s partition plan, the UN has done nothing for Israel but fight to try and destroy it – from passing hundreds of one-sided resolutions to refusing to recognize even basic Israeli rights to live or exist. The UN gave Arafat his legitimacy. The UN – through its corrupt agency, UNRWA, perpetuated the Palestinian refugee problem. The UN did everything possible to encourage Palestinian terorrism and give legitimacy to the PLO’s methods. The UN is the enemy here, not a neutral observer. What else could I have expected from Annan?

I will not shed any tears for Arafat. He was a murderer, an innovator of nothing but terrorism, and a failure in his supposed “causes”. I’m sickened by how the world has accorded him status of a “national leader” when he’s really nothing more than a thug.

But I refuse to rejoice at the news of his death. I won’t cry but I won’t dance for joy either.

Of course, there’s a practical reason. Arafat’s death likely means civil war for the Palestinians. As the various factions fracture and try to outdo each other, I fear more Israeli deaths amidst the chaos – both of Zahal soldiers and of civilians. There is no reason to rejoice even the prospect of this.

But beyond that, I find it gruesome and morally reprehensible to rejoice at the death of anyone, even an enemy. Maybe even especially an enemy. That’s what gives us our humanity. That’s what gives us our respect for life and our love of life and our unwavering commitment to celebrating life, not death.

Arafat embraced death. He wanted to die a “martyr”. He sent scores of Palestinians out to murder Israelis with bombs strapped to their chests. In his arithmetic, every Israeli death was a Palestinian victory and every Palestinian death was a Palestinian victory.

When I see footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets after 9/11 or after a suicide bombing against Israelis, it makes my stomach turn. When I hear firing of guns in the air and cries of revenge at every funeral for a “martyr”, it makes me realize that there are those who view loving life as Israel’s weakness.

It’s not a weakness. It’s a strength. And that is why I will not share in the sentiment that is being expressed in some circles of happiness at the news of Arafat’s death.

But Israelis do not dance and rejoice at death. They dance and rejoice at life. They love life. They embrace life, living it to its fullest and then some. It’s a marked difference that’s obvious to even the casual observer.

I’m not sorry Arafat’s dead. But I refuse to celebrate death in even the smallest way. I prefer to celebrate life.

Update: In case you’re wondering, I don’t view participation in Meryl’s call to donate $25 to Magen David Adom as a celebration of death. To me, that’s the ultimate way to affirm the protection of life in the face of news of the death of a terrorist. If Arafat caused so many thousands of people to need ambulances, it is the support of people who care that will provide the ambulances to help them. Personally, I can’t think of anything more fitting.