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Israel-Palestine
The Monster
2004-11-11
Found via Drudge. Hopefully a antidote to all the 'He was a GREAT MAN' bullshit the MSM is spewing forth.... EFL somewhat.

YASSER ARAFAT died at age 75, lying in bed surrounded by familiar faces. He left this world peacefully, unlike the thousands of victims he sent to early graves.

In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, hanged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world, George Bush would not have said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless his soul."

Arafat always inspired flights of nonsense from Western journalists, and his last two weeks were no exception.

Derek Brown wrote in The Guardian that Arafat's "undisputed courage as a guerrilla leader" was exceeded only "by his extraordinary courage" as a peace negotiator. But it is an odd kind of courage that expresses itself in shooting unarmed victims -- or in signing peace accords and then flagrantly violating their terms.

Some journalists couldn't wait for Arafat's actual death to begin weeping for him. Take the BBC's Barbara Plett, who burst into tears on the day he was airlifted out of the West Bank. "When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound," Plett reported from Ramallah, "I started to cry." Normal people don't weep for brutal murderers, but Plett made it clear that her empathy for Arafat -- whom she praised as "a symbol of Palestinian unity, steadfastness, and resistance" -- was heartfelt:

"I remember well when the Israelis re-conquered the West Bank more than two years ago, how they drove their tanks and bulldozers into Mr. Arafat's headquarters, trapping him in a few rooms, and throwing a military curtain around Ramallah. I remember how Palestinians admired his refusal to flee under fire. They told me: `Our leader is sharing our pain, we are all under the same siege.' And so was I." Such is the state of journalism at the BBC, whose reporters do not seem to have any trouble reporting, dry-eyed, on the plight of Arafat's victims. (That is, when they mention them -- which Plett's teary bon voyage to Arafat did not.)

And what about those victims? Why were they scarcely remembered in this Arafat death watch?

It would take an encyclopedia to catalog all of the evil Arafat committed. But that is no excuse for not trying to recall at least some of it.

Perhaps his signal contribution to the practice of political terror was the introduction of warfare against children. On one black date in May 1974, three PLO terrorists slipped from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Ma'alot. They murdered two parents and a child whom they found at home, then seized a local school, taking more than 100 boys and girls hostage and threatening to kill them unless a number of imprisoned terrorists were released. When Israeli troops attempted a rescue, the terrorists exploded hand grenades and opened fire on the students. By the time the horror ended, 25 people were dead; 21 of them were children.

Thirty years later, no one speaks of Ma'alot anymore. The dead children have been forgotten. Everyone knows Arafat's name, but who ever recalls the names of his victims?

So let us recall them: Ilana Turgeman. Rachel Aputa. Yocheved Mazoz. Sarah Ben-Shim'on. Yona Sabag. Yafa Cohen. Shoshana Cohen. Michal Sitrok. Malka Amrosy. Aviva Saada. Yocheved Diyi. Yaakov Levi. Yaakov Kabla. Rina Cohen. Ilana Ne'eman. Sarah Madar. Tamar Dahan. Sarah Soper. Lili Morad. David Madar. Yehudit Madar. The 21 dead children of Ma'alot -- 21 of the thousands of who died at Arafat's command.
Posted by:CrazyFool

#8  I'm sure management at the Globe will have him cleaning the toilets with a toothbrush over the weekend as his penance.

I had even money on the Globe suspending him during the 2004 campaign like they did four years ago. Fascists.
Posted by: Raj   2004-11-11 9:19:59 PM  

#7  CF - that's a great post. I've been waiting a looong time for that shitbag to die. The MSM have been *vile* in reporting his 'sainthood'. May his soul rot in hell.
Posted by: Tony (UK)   2004-11-11 5:49:48 PM  

#6  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Denounce this monster. Denounce the lies and insanity that seek to portray him as anything but a monster.
Posted by: Edmund Burke   2004-11-11 3:20:53 PM  

#5  Great post, CF--thanks.
Posted by: Dar   2004-11-11 2:01:02 PM  

#4  Jacoby is an excellent writer, and, I've found, will graciously converse via email regarding his columns and thoughts
Posted by: Frank G   2004-11-11 1:38:02 PM  

#3  Everyone knows Arafat’s name, but who ever recalls the names of his victims?

Arafart supporters need to say this sentence over and over for as long as it takes until the gravity of the scumbag's deeds sink in.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-11-11 1:27:22 PM  

#2  "I started to cry." Normal people don’t weep for brutal murderers, but Plett made it clear that her empathy for Arafat -- whom she praised as "a symbol of Palestinian unity, steadfastness, and resistance" -- was heartfelt:
Why did she cry? Did she miss out on part of his one Billion dollars, that all freedom fighters get while his people suffer.
Posted by: plainslow   2004-11-11 1:00:32 PM  

#1  When I saw "Boston Globe", I almost shit. But then I saw it was Jacoby, their token conservative.
I'm sure management at the Globe will have him cleaning the toilets with a toothbrush over the weekend as his penance.
Posted by: tu3031   2004-11-11 12:56:32 PM  

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