(Washington Post)Jim Hoagland - You owe me. Pay up. Or else. That was the underlying message in Arafat's many speeches to the UN, interviews with Western and Arab journalists, and official meetings with international civil servants at the height of his career as a money-grubbing revolutionary. It is bad enough that a shakedown artist came to be the recognized leader of a people abused by history and subjugated over the centuries. That the Palestinians internalized the Arafatist "pay up" view of world politics is even more tragic and self-defeating.
2004-11-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive