| Israel kept Yasser Arafat away from Bethlehem's Christmas celebration for the first time in seven years. Scouts playing drums and bagpipes marched beneath Palestinian flags and posters of the absent Arafat. Addressing his people in a prerecorded speech broadcast on Palestinian TV, Arafat, a Muslim, said he spoke "with a heart full of sadness... The Israeli tanks, the barriers and the rifles of the oppressors have prevented me from sharing with you our annual celebration on this divine and blessed occasion," he said. "The whole world that has seen what happened ... has to know what kind of terror the worshippers in this Holy Land are facing." Thought he was gonna walk if he had to? |