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final, cohesive thoughts on Arafat

November 14, 2004
I think that the whole, �Arafat was a good man because he secured _____________ for his people,� falls on its face when you consider what he did not secure for his people and how he secured it.

Moving past Arafat�s lies and vitriol and the rampant anti Semitism of his supporters let us look at how he achieved his goals, which he never did: terrorism. Terrorism is always a means to an end never realized.

Henry David Thoreau taught civil disobedience, something adopted by the Women�s Suffrage Movements and other Civil Rights Movements. Gandhi, the leaders of the Woman�s Suffrage Movements and Martin Luther King, Junior all used nonviolent civil disobedience as a means to an end. It is hard to argue with their results.

Liberals hate her, mainly because she shines a light on how work ethic will get you further than any government program, but Dr. Condoleezza Rice is an excellent example of the success of Susan Anthony, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

One wonders, how the Palestinian cause would be forwarded if the nonviolent, civil disobedient path was taken? In America we had Malcolm X � a compelling orator and leader and Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King�s message was more effective because of its peaceful nature and the inclusiveness that it sought.

You will never be rid of the �racist government in my pedestrian understanding of everything from the price of bread to the geopolitics of anti Semitic rhetoric� perspective, but for people who want peace in the world, and that starts in the Middle East, you would need to have the understanding that everyone has legitimate needs, fears and a right to exist.

The Palestinian movement led by Arafat did not include that idea that the Israelis and the Jews had a right to exist, or legitimate needs or fears.

And no, a legitimate fear does not make someone racist. The Israeli government did not program us to hate Arafat. People who have: blown up airplanes and Kindergartens, take hostages at the Olympics, blown up Kindergartens, and in general target civilian populations instead of military ones, instead of using an approach entrenched in reason using one entrenched in hate, do not need a public affairs program to get them to be hated.

The history and psychology of Israel is commonly misunderstood by Americans and Western Europeans. We keep forgetting that we tried to exterminate the Jews or valiantly ignored those doing it, here in the West. We do not understand the psychology that becomes a part of your life when you survive a holocaust and then have to make sure your child has a gas mask before they leave the house for school and in general worry about putting them on a bus because they are prone to being blown up on Arafat�s orders.

I keep forgetting that you who hate Israel do not read the Arab press where Arafat praised this action, where he decried Israel and called for everyone there to be slaughtered, where Al Qaeda was praised and our own end in the West called for. It also amuses me that many of these peope are in the �they knew� crowd who dismiss a lot of facts and just reinforce their own hatred for conservatives and republicans. Clinton had many of those men who hijacked those planes let out of prison and into our country, but you would never deal with that, would you?

So, when we step back and look at Arafat in the panorama of recent world history we see a man who used terrorism as a means to an end, but that end was never realized. We see him in the same picture as Gandhi and realize that if Gandhi could get the British to leave India then perhaps Arafat could have, using the same method, gotten the Israelis to do something as well.

And, yes, in response to an earlier question, Guilianni became a great man, in my mind, when he threw a party for World Leaders as Mayor of New York during a summit at the UN and had Arafat removed. Arafat wasn�t a leader, he was a monster and will go down as one.

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