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Terrorist Leader Arafat Fades, Leaving Chance for Peace

(Chicago Sun-Times) Editorial - Arafat might have been president of a real nation - in the mid-1990s the Palestinian Authority was printing up postage stamps with Arafat's picture on them, to be used in the state that seemed so tantalizingly within reach. Arafat tossed it away. The man who created modern terror ended up unable to let it go. Arafat was responsible for the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, and too many individual evil acts to begin to list. The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were no doubt inspired by his efforts. Somehow, in the minds of his ever-forgiving apologists, the blood never stuck to his hands. Arafat presented himself as a statesman with a pistol, and people bought it. Three years after he enthusiastically backed Saddam Hussein in his 1991 invasion and pillage of Kuwait, Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize for his feint toward a Mideast peace after the 1993 Oslo accords he would ultimately turn his back on. As terrible a toll as Arafat extracted from those he saw as enemies, the crime he committed against his own people is also monstrous. It was a crime that can be measured in millions of dollars siphoned away by his corrupt Palestinian Authority while his people suffered grinding poverty. A crime that can be measured in years lost that could have been used productively building a Palestinian state. A crime measured in thousands of lives lost and even more ruined. He stole the Palestinians' money, sacrificed their lives for naught, and they clung to him as the symbol of their cause. It is difficult to imagine that those who tolerated Arafat as their leader for so long have the capacity to seize the day now.
2004-11-02 00:00:00
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