Yasser Arafat, 1929-2004

And here's where his cataclysmic failure, choosing the second intifada over the viable Palestinian state he was offered at Taba got him: all boxed in.

@%<

He was offered a state in name only. In reality it would have been an archipelago of Bantustan lagers, surrounded by barb wire and Israeli guard towers.

He was offered a real, territorially contiguous independent state. That's what it would have been in reality, surrounded by internationally recognized borders as other states have.

Just a reminder -- what Arafat turned down at Taba wasn't what he wants you to believe he turned down. The next time someone tells you Arafat was offered only "cantons" or "bantustans," ask someone who was there:

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The Missing Peace

Bill Clinton's Middle East envoy on what went wrong in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations -- and what the U.S. has to do to help make them go right again.

by Nonna Gorilovskaya

October 20, 2004

Reading Dennis Ross's The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace, a blow-by-blow account of the United States' mediation efforts in the region, one is reminded that it wasn't always this way. A Democrat, Ross was the chief Middle East peace negotiator in the first Bush administration and under President Bill Clinton. He personifies the enormous attention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict received under presidents of both parties, and is highly critical of the current administration's course.

[...]
MotherJones.com: In your opinion, Arafat squandered his chance at Camp David in 2000. How so?

Dennis Ross: In the book what Ive done is I laid out not only verbally what we offered, but I've also produced a map that compares what Arafat says he was offered -- and continues to suggest he was offered -- with what he was actually offered. So I am making it clear that if what we offered was so bad, why lie about it? Why misrepresent it? Why say you were offered cantons when you weren't? Why say that you didn't have a border with Jordan when you did? Why say you weren't even offered 90 percent when you were offered 97 percent? Why say that you did not get any of East Jerusalem when you were offered all of Arab East Jerusalem?

MJ.com: What did Arafat object to at the time?

DR: Well, he never gave us a good answer. Part of the problem with Arafat was that when we were at Camp David, he would just say no. He wouldn't come with counters and he wouldn't come back with specifics. Now, his negotiators at Camp David made compromises, concessions, which we did not hear from him.

[...]

MJ.com: Ultimately, you saw Arafat as someone who was not serious about a final settlement. When did you come to this view?

DR: After Camp David. I felt that he had really revealed that he was not interested or capable of doing an agreement that ended the conflict. With Arafat, what came through to me ultimately was that as long as he didn't have to make an irrevocable commitment, he was quite prepared to sign up to any agreement. Arafat is someone who will never close a door, never foreclose an option. He has to be able to say that he still has claims, still has grievances, and in light of that, the conflict at a certain level goes on.

MJ.com: But wouldn't you expect Arafat to want to be seen as the father of the Palestinian state?

RS: Well, that's what guided me for a long time. I assumed that the ultimate salvation for him was being able to be someone who had led the national liberation movement and had fulfilled the promise of that movement by producing a state. And he would still like to do that, but what he is not prepared to do, in the end, is to truly live with a two-state solution. This is someone who would live with Israel beyond the time that he is alive, but he won't live with it in a historical sense. He doesn't want to be the one that goes down in Palestinian history as the one who precluded a one-state solution.

[...]

Read the article online:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/10/09_404.html

The New York Times' self-hating "moderate" columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, always does his best to disguise his religious-based pro-Israel bias. But in the saga of the deteriorating health of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, he can't seem to restrain a bitter hatred that merely demonstrates his anti-Palestinian bias.

Writes Friedman, Arafat "was a bad man, not simply for the way he introduced a whole new level of terrorism to the world politics, but because of the crimes he committed against his own people. There, history will judge him harshly."

No Mr. Friedman, pro-Israeli religious hypocrites like you will continue to savage the Palestinians while soft-balling criticism of Israel, mainly because you, too, oppose a just and fair peace accord based on a truly balanced scale of land for peace.

As he survived ruthless assaults against his life over the years, Arafat's legacy will survive the blistering prejudice of Israel's cunning advocates like Friedman who dominate the Western media and English-speaking history with pro-Israel blather.

Friedman doesn't have the Chutzpah to advocate for a genuine peace, nor hold his people, the Israelis, to the same harsh standards that he constantly inflicts upon Palestinians who, like Arafat, had insisted on a peace that is just and fair.

Arafat is a hero. Plain and simple. He was a revolutionary in the same sense of George Washington. If Arafat can be faulted for anything, it was that he was never a good negotiator, nor was he a great government leader either. But what revolutionaries ever are?

Arafat faced an even greater, more insurmountable challenge of trying to transform from a revolutionary to the leader of a government constantly undermined and influenced by Israel.

But his genius is undeniable.

Arafat took the Palestinian people out of an oblivious desert. And in the face of the greatest ever hate-inspired propaganda campaign directed against any people on this Earth, he prevailed exposing a canard instilled by Israeli extremism (which is more common than Friedman or others would admit) that "the Palestinians, they don't exist."

Arafat was the only Palestinian leader who could and did recognize Israel's right to exist, even without demanding a quid pro quo from the Israelis. He accepted the concept of a two-state solution in spite of a rule of law that prevailed on the side of Palestinian claims.

Arafat embraced a negotiated compromise that he mistakenly believed was on the up-and-up with Israel. He did so knowing full well that during that process Israel never once acted on its promise to dismantle its settlements, which are illegal, every single one, in the face of even the most conservative interpretations of international law.

The peace process blamed on Arafat for failing was never on the up-and-up. It was always skewered toward Israel's best interests and advantage. It was managed by a negotiator with a religious conviction towards Israel, and a nation that was more an advocate for Israel than a fair arbiter for compromise.

The assertion that Israel's offer to the Palestinians at Camp David was "fair" or "just" is so patently outrageous that it's hard to resume peace negotiations from that point with any seriousness.

It may have been the "best offer," but it was flawed. Never written down. Never affirmed. Always waved like a mirage to draw the Palestinians into conceding more in exchange for what they always get from Israel, nothing.

There is only one fair solution to the Palestine Israel conflict and Arafat supported it. It's the Israelis who do not. It is a compromise that demands the return of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, lands occupied in the 1967 War.

It is a compromise that demands that either Israel dismantle ALL of its illegal settlements, including those built around East Jerusalem on lands confiscated illegally from their rightful Palestinian owners.

Justice and fairness demands that Israel trade, inch-for-inch, land for any that it keeps. Instead, Israel's "greatest offer" proposed 1 inch for every 9 inches of occupied land, and not even in writing.

Arafat's compromise is a compromise that insists that Israel accept responsibility for creating the Palestinian refugee problem. Dozens of former Israeli leaders have confessed as much in their final writings. It's ridiculous and insulting to even entertain as serious Israel's rejection of responsibility.

Arafat's legacy defines the only compromise that is acceptable and workable. Either the Israelis accept it or they bequeath to a future endless violence and conflict.

Israel will forever be challenged by a people who refused to surrender, who cannot be defeated and who insist on a compromise based on fairness and justice.

As he did in life as a noble leader who deserves everlasting Palestinian gratitude, Arafat continues to elude his adversaries, including his most recent, the call of God himself.

Arafat will die when he chooses, and not a minute sooner.

I thought it was the ultimate irony that news of Arafat's "death" began on the very day that many remembered his only real partner in peace, Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was murdered by an Israeli fanatic on Nov. 4, 1995, demonstrating that Israelis are just as prone to violence in the face of a reasoned outcome that requires true compromise.

Many extremists, including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, believe that now that men like Arafat and Rabin are gone, they can impose a solution that is neither just nor fair.

But Israelis must accept that there can be no peace without justice or fairness. Israelis can no longer continue to hide behind Arafat as the excuse for why peace is unachievable.

It's not Arafat who has been standing in the way of a genuine peace, but the refusal of most Israelis to be fair, just or even honest about history.

Although Arafat, the man, will be gone, his inspiration to fight for justice and fairness is a legacy that will forever flourish among Palestinians.

http://www.ramallahonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2026

Reacting to the death of President Yasser Arafat, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said President Arafat will always be remembered for having led the Palestinians, back in 1988, to accept the principle of peaceful coexistence between Israel and a future Palestinian state.



"By signing the Oslo accords in 1993 he took a giant step towards the realization of this vision," a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement issued in New York. "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.

"Deeply moved" by the news of the Palestinian leader's death, the Secretary-General conveyed his condolences to President Arafat's wife Suha and his young daughter Zahwa, and to the Palestinian people.

For nearly four decades, the statement stressed, President Arafat had "expressed and symbolized in his person the national aspirations of the Palestinian people."

http://www.ramallahonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2028

JORDAN, LEBANON AND TUNISIA

By the lagte 1960s, heavily-armed, Arafat-led Palestinians had formed a terrorist 'state within a state' in Jordan, not only attacking Israeli civilian targets, but also seizing control of Jordanian infrastructure.

The tension reached a height during late 1970, when Jordan's King Hussein cracked down on the Palestinian factions. During this bloody conflict, known as 'Black September', Palestinians hijacked four Western airliners and blew one up on a Cairo runway, to both embarrass the Egyptians and Jordanians and, in their words, 'teach the Americans a lesson for their long-standing support of Israel.' With the broad publicity this generated, Arafat had hit the world stage.

When King Hussein drove Arafat's faction our of his Jordanian kingdom (causing thousands of civilian death), tehy relocated in Lebanon. As in Jordan, Arafat soon triggered a bloody civil war in his previously stable host country. Simultaneously, the PLO launched intermittent attacks on Israeli towns from wouthern Lebaness positions.

Yassir Arafat then brought the high-profile terrorist act to western soil. In Sept. 1972, Fatah-backed terrorists kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games. And in 1973, Arafat ordered his operatives in the Kharthoum, Sudan office of Fatah to abduct and murder US Ambassador Cleo Noel and two other diplomats. (In 2004, the FBI finally opened an official investigation against Arafat for the Khartoummurders.)

The wanton violence fueled Arafat's political goals,as his presence on the world stage grew: In 1974, he became the first representative of a nongovernmental organization to address a plenary session of the UN General Assembly. In the speech, with a gun holster strapped to his hip, Arafat compared himself to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Arab heads of states declared the PLO the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinians, the PLO was granted full membership in the Arab League in 1976, and by 1980 fully recognized by European nations.

In 1978-82, the IDF invaded Lebanon root out PLO groups that had continually terrorized the northern Israeli populace. The US brokered a cease-fire deal in which Arafat and the PLO were allowed to leave Lebanon; Arafat and thre PLOleadership eventually settled in Tunisia, which remained his center of operations until 1993.
During the 1980s, Arafat received financial assitance from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, which allowed him to rebuild the battered PLO. This was particularly useful during the fist Palestinian intifada in 1987 -Arafat took control of the violence from afar, and it was mainly due to Fatah forces in the West Bank that the anti-Israeli terror and civil unrest could be maintained. Arafat would then become nearly the only orld leader to support Saddam Hussein in the 1991 Gulf War. (Saddam would later repay this loyalty by sending $25,000 checks to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.)

THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY

In the early 1990s, the Us led Israel and the PLO to negotiations that spawned the 1993 Oslo Accords, an agreement that called for the implementation of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over a five-year period. The following year Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.

In 1994, Arafat moved his headquarters to the West Bank and Gaza to run the Palestinian Authority, an entity created by the Oslo Accords. Arafat brought with him from Tunisia an aging PLO leadership that would bolster his ongoing monopoly over all Palestinian funds, power and authority. Elections in 1996 extended Arafat's control over the PA, but under the Oslo agreement, the term of that candidacy ended in 1999. Arafat never allowed nex elections to take place.

While Israel went about implementing its side of the Oslo agreements -removing trops from nearly all Palestinian areas, recognizing the PA, and educating for peace- the PA utterly failed to live up to its commitment to renounce and uprrot anti-Israel terrorism. Instead, unprecedented incitement from Arafat's offical PA media and school textbooks, and active and passive PA support for terrorist groups led to a string of suicide bombings in the mid-1990s that killed scofres of Israeli civilians. In October 1996, at the height of the Oslo years, Arafat cried out to a Bethlehem crowd, '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.'

In July 2000, US presidentBill Clinton attempted to keep the Oslo Accords viable by convening a summit at Camp David between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. There, Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in Gaza and 92% of the West Bank,and a capital in East Jerusalem. -the most generous offer ever from an Israeli government. Yassir Arafat rejected the offer and ended neggotiations without a counteroffer. As American envoy Dennis Ross concluded, 'Arafat could nogt accept Camp David... because when the conflict ends, the cause that defines Arafat also ends.'

Immediately following this breakdown, the PA media machine under Arafat's control ramped up the war rhetoric, and preparations were made for riots that were unleashed following Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount. The Arafat-supported 'al Aqsa intifada' would continue for four years. This umprecedented wave of anti-Israel terrorism, whicy would result in over 1,000 Israeli deaths, was marcked by over 120 Palestinian suicide bombers and the growth of an Islamic martyrdom cult.

This stage of violence revealed that Arafat and the PA had never abandoned their longstanding plans to liquidate the Jewish state. Arafat had told an arab audience in Stockholm in 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.' Likewise, Arafat explained to a South African crowd in 1994 that the Oslo agreement was merely a tactical ruse in the larger battle to destroy the Jewish state - a modern version of the Muslim prophet Mohammed's trickery against the ancient tribe of Quraysh. Arafat's colleague Faisal al-Husseini was even more explicit, describing the Oslo process as a 'Trojan Horse' designed to promote the strategic goal of 'Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea' -that is, a Palestine in place of Israel.

By HonestRerporting.com
HonestReportincom/November 11, 2004


It is ironic that the man who personified the Palestinian movement was neither born in the region it claims, nor conforms to his own organization's definition of Palestinian identity. Yasser Arafat, whose real name is Abdel-Rahman Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hisseini, was born is August 1929 in Cairo, son of an Egyptian textile merchant. He was sent to Jerusalem as a small child after his mother died, then returned to Egypt via Gaza.

Throughout his career, Arafat's Egyptian background was a political impediment and source of personal embarrassment. One biographer notes that upon first meeting him in 1967, "West Bankers did not like his Egyptian accent and ways and found them alien," and to the very end Arafat emplyed an aide to translate his Egyptian dialect into Palestinian Arabic for conversing with his West Banka and Gaza subjects.

As a young man, Arafat took no part in the formative experience of the Palestinian movement -the 1948 Arab-Israeli war- but he would nonethesess claim refugee status throughout his live: "I am a refugee", he cried out in a 1969 interview, "Do you know what it means to be a refugee? I am a poor and helpless man. I have nothing, for I was expelled and dispossessed of my homeland." (Arafat's congenital lying would continue for decades.)

TERRORIST TO THE END

The final phase in Arafat's life-long commitment to organized terror was channeled through the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a Fatah group that was responsible for many of the most deadly attacks against Israeli civilians between 200-2004. Though many media outlets described a mere 'loose affiliation' between Arafat and this terrorist group, the evidence clearly indicated a direct financial and organizational bond between the two:

* In November 2003, a BBC investigation found that up to $50,000 a month was funneled by Fatah, with Arafat's approval, directly to the Al Aqsa Brigades, or the purpose of organizing bombings, snipings and ambushes against Israeli civilians.

*Documents captured by the IDF in 2002 indicated Fatah's 'systematic, institutionalized and ongoing financing' of the Al Aqsa Brigades.

* The leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Tulkarm told USA Today on March 14, 2002: 'The truth is, we are Fatah, but we didn't operate under the name of Fatah... We are the armed wing of the organization. We receive our instructions from Fatah. Our commander is Yasser Arafat himself.'

In addition, Arafat granted free rein to the radical Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to perpetrate dozens of horrific acts of civilian murder between 2000-2004.

In addition, Arafat granted free rein to the radical Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to perpetrate dozens of horrific acts of civilian murder between 2000-2004.



October 4, 2003 Haifa 19 killed, 60 wounded Islamic Jihad Suicide
bombing in restaurant owned by Jews and Arabs
August 19, 2003 Jerusalem 22 killed, 135 wounded Hamas Suicide bombing
on a bus.

January 5, 2003 Tel Aviv 23 killed, 108 injured Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Two suicide bombers in an immigrant neighborhood

June 5, 2002 Megiddo 17 killed, 38 injured Islamic Jihad Car bomb
next to bus

May 27, 2002 Petah Tikvah 2 killed, 37 injured Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Suicide bomb in shopping mall

May 22, 2002 Rishon Lezion 2 killed, 40 wounded Suicide bomb on
pedestrian mall

May 19, 2002 Netanya 3 killed, 59 injured Hamas and the PFLP Suicide
bomb in market

May 7, 2002 Rishon Lezion 16 killed, 55 injured Hamas Suicide bomb
in pool hall

Apr 12, 2002 Jerusalem 6 killed, 104 injured Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Suicide bomb in Mahane Yehuda market

Apr 10, 2002 Kibbutz Yagur 8 killed, 22 injured Hamas Suicide
bombing on bus

March 31, 2002 Haifa 14 Killed, 40 Wounded Hamas Suicide bombing at
restaurant

March 29, 2002 Jerusalem 2 killed, 28 Wounded Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Suicide bombing at supermarket in Kiryat Yovel

March 27, 2002 Netanya 22 killed, 140 Wounded Hamas Suicide bombing
at Passover seder at Park Hotel

March 21, 2002 Jerusalem 3 killed, 86 Wounded Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Suicide bombing downtown

March 20, 2002 Afula 7 killed, 30 wounded Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Suicide bombing on bus

March 14, 2002 Karni-Netzarim road 3 Killed, 2 Wounded Fatah al-Aksa
Martyrs Brigade Remote Control Mine

March 12, 2002 near Kibbutz Matzuva 6 Killed, 7 Wounded Fatah al-Aksa
Martyrs Brigade Gunmen Ambush Vehicles

March 12, 2002 Kiryat Sefer checkpoint 1 Killed, 1 Wounded Shooting
Attack

March 11, 2002 Ashdod 1 Wounded Gunman Opens Fire at Bar Mitzvah

March 10, 2002 Netzarim 1 Killed Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade
Shooting Attack

March 9, 2002 Jerusalem 11 Killed, 54 Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber at
Cafe

March 9, 2002 Netanya 2 Killed, 50 Wounded Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade 2 Gunmen Open Fire on a Promenade

March 7, 2002 Atzmona 5 Killed, 23 Wounded Terrorist Opens Fire and
Throws Grenades

March 7, 2002 Ariel 6+ Wounded Suicide Bomber in Hotel Lobby

March 5, 2002 Sderot 1 Baby Wounded Kassam Rocket

March 5, 2002 Afula 1 Killed, 10 Wounded Suicide Bomber on Bus

March 5, 2002 Tel Aviv 3 Killed, 35+ Wounded Gunman Opens Fire at
Restaurants

March 5, 2002 outside Bethlehem 1 Killed, 1 Wounded Gunman Ambushes
Vehicle

March 2, 2002 Jerusalem 10 Killed, 50+ Wounded Fatah Al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Suicide Bomber outside Synagogue

February 27, 2002 West Bank 3 Wounded Fatah Female Suicide Bomber

February 25, 2002 Jerusalem 1 Killed, 8 Wounded Fatah Al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Gunman Opens Fire at a Bus Stop

February 25, 2002 Gush Etzion 1 Killed, 1 Pregnant Woman Wounded Fatah
Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade Gunmen Open Fire on a Car

February 22, 2002 Efrat 1 Wounded Suicide Bomber in Supermarket

February 22, 2002 North of Jerusalem 1 Killed Fatah Drive-by Shooting

February 19, 2002 En Arik 6 Killed, 1 Wounded Fatah Al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Gunmen Open Fire at Soldiers

February 18, 2002 Gush Katif 3 Killed, 4 Wounded Fatah Al-Aksa
Martyrs Brigade Gunfire and Bombs at Cars

February 18, 2002 near Jerusalem 1 Killed, 1 Injured Fatah Al-Aksa
Martyrs Brigade Car Bomb

February 16, 2002 Karnei Shomron 2 Killed, 27 Wounded Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine Suicide Bomber at Crowded Shopping
Mall

February 14, 2002 Gaza 3 Killed, 4 Wounded Mine Placed Under Tank

February 10, 2002 Be'er Sheva 2 Killed, 4 Wounded Hamas Drive-by
Shooting

February 8, 2002 Jerusalem 1 Killed 4 Teenagers with Knives

February 6, 2002 Moshav Hamra 2 Killed, 5 Wounded Hamas Gunmen
Infiltrates Moshav

January 30, 2002 Taiba 2 Wounded Fatah Suicide Bomber

January 27, 2002 Jerusalem 1 Killed, 150+ Wounded Fatah Female Suicide
Bomber

January 25, 2002 Tel Aviv 24 Wounded Islamic Jihad Suicide Bomber at
Crowded Pedestrian Shopping Mall

January 22, 2002 Jerusalem 2 Killed, 40 Wounded Fatah Al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Guman Opens Fire on Crowd

January 17, 2002 Hadera 6 Killed, 35 Wounded Fatah Al-Aksa Martyrs
Brigade Gunman Opens Fire at Bat Mitzvah Celebration

January 15, 2002 Beit Jala 1 Killed Fatah Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade
American Kidnapped and Murdered

January 9, 2002 Kerem Shalom 4 Killed, 2 Wounded Hamas Gunfire and
Expolsives

December 12, 2001 Emmanuel 10 Killed, 30 Wounded Fatah & Hamas Bomb
and Gunfire Attack on Bus

December 9, 2001 Haifa 31 Wounded Suicide Bomber

December 2, 2001 Haifa 15 Killed, 46 Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber on
Bus

December 1, 2001 Jerusalem 10 Killed, 188+ Wounded Hamas 2 Suicide
Bombers and a Car Bomb in a Pedestrian Mall

November 29, 2001 near Hadera 3 Killed, 9 Wounded Islamic Jihad &
Fatah Suicide Bomber on Bus

November, 27, 2001 Afula 2 Killed, Dozens Wounded Islamic Jihad &
Fatah Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade 2 Gunmen Opened Fire on Crowd near the
Central Bus Station

November, 27, 2001 Gush Katif 1 Killed, 3 Wounded Hamas Grenades and
Gunfire

November 26, 2001 Erez Checkpoint 2 Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber

November 24, 2001 Kfar Darom 1 Killed Hamas Morter Shell Landed on a
Soccer Field

November 4, 2001 Jerusalem 2 Killed, 50+ Wounded Islamic Jihad Gunman

October 28, 2001 Hadera 4 Killed, 40 Wounded Gunman

October 28, 2001 near Kibbutz Metzer 1 Killed Tanzim Drive-By
Shooting

October 17, 2001 Jerusalem Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi
Assasinated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Gunmen in
Hotel

October 7, 2001 Beit She'an Valley 1 Killed Suicide Bomber

October 4, 2001 Afula 3 Killed, 16 Wounded Gunman Opens Fire on
Crowd

October 1, 2001 Jerusalem Several Wounded Car Bomb

September 9, 2001 Nahariya 3 Killed, 90 Wounded Hamas 1st
Israeli-Arab Suicide Bomber, at Train Station

September 9, 2001 West Bank 2 Killed, 4 Wounded Gunmen

September 4, 2001 Jerusalem 20 Wounded Suicide Bomber disguised as
Orthodox Jew

September 3, 2001 Jerusalem 3 Wounded Series of Car Bombs

August 12, 2001 Kiryat Motzkin 21 Wounded Islamic Jihad Suicide Bomber
at Cafe

August 9, 2001 Jerusalem 15 Killed, 130+ Wounded Islamic Jihad & Hamas
Suicide Bomber at Pizzaria

July 16, 2001 Binyamina 2 Killed, 11 Wounded Islamic Jihad Suicide
Bomber at Bus Stop

June 22, 2001 Dugit 2 Killed Hamas Suicide Bomber

June 1, 2001 Tel Aviv 21 Killed, 120 Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber at
Disco

May 30, 2001 Netanya 8 Wounded Islamic Jihad Car Bomb outside School

May 27, 2001 Jerusalem 30 Wounded Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine & Islamic Jihad 2 Car Bombs

May 25, 2001 Hadera 65 Wounded Islamic Jihad Car Bomb

May 18, 2001 Netanya 5 Killed, 100+ Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber at
Mall

May 9, 2001 Tekoa 2 Killed Islamic Jihad Two 14 year-old Boys Beaten
and Stoned to Death, found dismembered in a Cave

April 23, 2001 Or Yehuda 8 Wounded Islamic Jihad Car Bomb in Outdoor
Market

April 22, 2001 Kfar Saba 1 Killed, 60 Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber at
Bus Stop

March 28, 2001 near Kfar Saba 2 Killed, 4 Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber
at School Bus Stop

March 27, 2001 Jerusalem 7 Wounded Islamic Jihad Car Bomb

March 27, 2001 Jerusalem 28 Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber

March 26, 2001 Hevron 10-Month Old Infant Shalhevet Pass Killed
Sniper from Abu Sneineh

March 4, 2001 Netanya 3 Killed, 65+ Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber

February 14, 2001 Azor 8 Killed, 21 Wounded Hamas Bus Driver Plows
into Crowd

January 23, 2001 Tulkarem 2 Killed Hamas Gunmen Kidnap and Shoot 2
Israelis

January 1, 2001 Netanya 50+ Wounded Hamas Car Bomb

December 22, 2000 Jordan Valley 3+ Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber

November 22, 2000 Hadera 2 Killed, 55 Wounded Islamic Jihad Car Bomb
next to Bus

November 20, 2000 Kfar Darom 2 Killed, 9 Wounded School Bus Bombed

November 2, 2000 Jerusalem 2 Killed, 10 Wounded Islamic Jihad Car Bomb
in outdoor Market

October 26, 2000 Gaza 1 Wounded Islamic Jihad Youth Suicide Bomber on
Bike

November 7, 1999 Netanya 27 Wounded Hamas 3 Pipe Bombs

August 10, 1999 Nahshon Junction 6 Wounded Hamas Car Plows into Crowd
(Twice)

November 6, 1998 Jerusalem 2 Killed, 20 Wounded Islamic Jihad 2
Suicide Bombers

October 29, 1998 Gush Katif 1 Killed, 8 Wounded Hamas Suicide Bomber
Attacks School Bus

October 19, 1998 Be'er Sheva 59 Wounded Hamas Grenades Thrown at
Central Bus Station

October 11, 1998 Hevron 18 Wounded Hamas 2 Grenades Injure
Palestinians and Israelis

August 27, 1998 Tel-Aviv 14 Wounded Hamas Bomb In Dumpster

August 20, 1998 Tel Rumeiyda Rabbi Killed Hamas Fire Bomb & Stabbing
Link

DELEGITIMIZATION

In January 2002, the Israeli Navy seized a Gaza-Bound, PA-owned freighter -the Karine A- that was loaded with more than fifty tons of Iranina ammunition and weapons, including dozens of surface-to-surface Katyusha rockets.

In June 2002, upon recognizing Arafat's ongoing financing and abetting of terrorism, US President Bush called for Arafat's removal from power. Progress toward peace required, according to Bush, 'a new and different Palestinian leadership... not compromised by terror.' Release of a US-backed 'road map' for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was therefore delayed until such a new Palestinian leader emerged. On its part, the Israeli government chose to isolate Arafat in his Ramallah compound, the 'Muqata', where he would remain from early 2002 until his final days.

In April 2003, hours after Mahmoud Abbas assumed the role of Palestinian prime minister, the official road map was released and diplomatic progress began. But Arafat consistently undercut the authority of Abbas, leading to Abbas' resignation and the halting of the road map peace process.

CORRUPTION,AUTOCRACY, JIHAD

Over the course of his 'revolutionary' career, Arafat siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars of international aid money intended to reach the Palestinian people.

Estimates of the degree of Arafat's wealth differ, but are all staggering: In 2003, Forbes magazine liste Arafat in its annual list of the wealthiest 'Kngs, Queens and Despots,' with a fortune of 'at least $300 million.' Israel and US officials estimate Arafat's personal holdings between $1-3 billion.

And while the average Palestinian barely subsisted, Arafat's wife Wuha in Paris received $100,000 each month from PA sources as reported on CBS' 60 Minutes. That CBS report also noted that Arafat amintained secret invesments in a Ramallah-based Coca Cola plant, a Tunisian cellphone company, and venture capital funds in the US and the Cayman Islands.

Arafat also used foreigh aid funds to pay off cronies weho bolstered his autocracy: An International Monetary Fund report indicated that upwards of 8% ($ 135 nillion) of the PA's annual budget was handed out by Arafat 'at his sole discretion.' And Arafat's select PA policemen, far from keeping the peace, were repeatedly among the suicide bombers and snipers.

Money was just one method of strengthening Arafat's power apparatus. Critics of his PA government were routinely imprisoned, tortured or beaten. One example: In 1999, Muawiya Al-Masri, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, described Arafat's corruption to a Jordanian newspaper. For this, he was attacked by a gang of masked men and shot three times. Al-Masri survived the ordeal and described Arafat's grip on PA power: 'There is no institutional process. There is only one institution -the Presidency, which has no law and order and is based on bribing top officials.'

From 2000-2004, Arafat permitted Muslim imams to incite unprecedented anti-Israeli and anti-American violence from their mosques and through official PA media. arafat's Religious Affairs Ministry employed preachers who regularly called for children to 'martyr themselves,' and PA television glamorized trhe act of suicide bombing.

Under Arafat, the Palestinian Authority school textbooks denied Israel's very existence, and jihad was presented to Palestinian children as an admirable course of action. The Jewish people, meanwhile, was represented to schoolchildren as a tricky, greedy and barbarous nation.

Freedom of the press was virtually non-existent during Arafat's reign in Gaza, Jericho and Ramallah -of it didn't speak favorably of Arafat, it didn't get printed in the PA-controlled media. Moreover, the PA enacted a systematic policy of intimidation of foreign journalists. One case among many: When an AP cameraman captured footage of Palestinian street celebrations following the 9/11 attacks, he was kidnapped, brought to a PA security office, and Arafat's cabinet secretary threatened that the PA 'cannot guarantee (his) life' if the footage was broadcast.

Yet beyond the terrorism, extortion, embezzlement and intimidation lies Arafat's most unfortunate ongoing impact: The inculcation of murderous values in an entire generation of Palestinians, who have been educated -under arafat's direction- to continue the fight of jihad against Israel, rather than compromise to end the decades-long conflict.

How many generations will it take to undo Arafat's dark legacy?

DELEGITIMIZATION

In January 2002, the Israeli Navy seized a Gaza-Bound, PA-owned freighter -the Karine A- that was loaded with more than fifty tons of Iranina ammunition and weapons, including dozens of surface-to-surface Katyusha rockets.

In June 2002, upon recognizing Arafat's ongoing financing and abetting of terrorism, US President Bush called for Arafat's removal from power. Progress toward peace required, according to Bush, 'a new and different Palestinian leadership... not compromised by terror.' Release of a US-backed 'road map' for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was therefore delayed until such a new Palestinian leader emerged. On its part, the Israeli government chose to isolate Arafat in his Ramallah compound, the 'Muqata', where he would remain from early 2002 until his final days.

In April 2003, hours after Mahmoud Abbas assumed the role of Palestinian prime minister, the official road map was released and diplomatic progress began. But Arafat consistently undercut the authority of Abbas, leading to Abbas' resignation and the halting of the road map peace process.

Arafat may not have been perfect, but he was confined to his compound while the Israeli's high up's drove around in fancy cars and lived in fancy homes..............Are the Israeli Government people just as bad?

It was Whacky Wendy who several days ago used the exact same wording: "Arafat may not have been perfect". But, it may be Aaron Aarons who is now trying to excuse Arafat's crimes against his nation.

Regardless, Israeli ministers driving around in Volvos is a poor example of leadership where the economically Israeli poor and downtrodden are concerned, but is undoubtedly a prerogative recognized by Israeli law. Same goes for living in swanky villas. Though I understand why communists find a problem here and are trying to exploit this theme to excuse Arafat's pilfering of int'l aid money for his own ends.

The wife lived in Paris very comfortably, has a fleet of expensive cars and has meals every day in the most luxurious restaurants.

Criminals are in prison while decent people live freely and enjoying what they have.

Don't forget, the reason that Arafat was confined to his compound in Ramallah was that he'd been caught redhanded with this little business called the Karine A.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'Karin_A'

That prompted the US reaction that Arafat was simply a double-dealing terrorist after all, he had just made himself irrelevant, and that there would be no US objection if Israel kept him filed away somewhere.

@%<

Last update - 15:49 05/02/2006






PA attorney general says billions may have been stolen from Palestinian coffers


By The Associated Press
The Palestinian attorney general on Sunday said a corruption investigation has concluded that senior officials in the Palestinian Authority may have stolen billions of dollars of public funds.

Attorney General Ahmed Al-Meghani told a news conference that his office is investigating dozens of corruption cases involving companies with ties to the PA.

"I cannot count the numbers because I'm not an accountant. It might be




billions of dollars. When I end my investigation, I'm going to put out in
detail all the numbers," he said.

Al-Meghani said he has made 25 arrests so far, and issued international
warrants for 10 other people who have fled the area. He declined to identify the suspects because the investigation is proceeding, but said the probe included the Palestinian oil, tobacco and broadcasting corporations.

He also cited the Middle East Water Pipe Co., a joint venture between the
Palestinian and Italian governments. Al-Meghani said $6 million was invested in the project, but the company was never formed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/678973.html