Terrorist Chic

No terrorist, and no cause, so personified the left's infatuation with radical chic as Yasser Arafat. Fidel Castro, for all his cachet in certain circles, is still too radioactive to invite to the White House or receive a Nobel. Other Third World thugs have, over the years, enjoyed a following among Western literati who never feared their rule. Similarly, Communists, especially those in the old USSR, could count on a fifth column in America and Europe to play the role of useful idiot.

But Arafat was able to command significant respect, I think, because of the portrayal of the Palestinians as eternal victims. In representing an officially designated oppressed people, he could launch terror at will and never be held accountable. And although it doesn't explain everything, I'm hardly going out on a limb when I say that this was true principally because his main targets were Israelis. Via Jeff Jarvis, here's a list of Arafat's victims. It's a very long list, and it only begins in 1993, long after he was covered in the blood of innocent victims.

Like all dictators, he was immensely corrupt and conniving. The level of hypocrisy, not to mention evil, of such people never seems to bother the international left. Dan Pipes has an insightful column on this underreported element of Arafat's life:

"Perhaps Suha has already dipped her delicate hand in the honey pot. An account in the Washington Times finds that shortly before Arafat was flown to France, Suha 'received $60 million in her Paris bank account.' And that's on top of an alleged $11.4 million deposited in her accounts between July 2002 and September 2003 (which French authorities are looking into). The same Washington Times article states that 'At least 60 percent of the Palestinian Authority's budget comes from international aid contributions, of which the European Union is the largest donor.' Translation: most of us Westerners share the privilege of footing the bill for Suha's legendary shopping expeditions."

Few can be shocked at Jacques Chirac's reaction: "It is with emotion that I have just learnt of the death of President Yasser Arafat, the first elected president of the Palestinian Authority, a man of courage and belief who embodied for 40 years the Palestinian battle for recognizing their national rights."

"I want to reassure the Palestinian people of the love and appreciation of France and the French people and hope that the loss of President Arafat would be an occasion for unifying Palestinian ranks."

Far more honest were Australian Prime Minister John Howard's words: "I think history will judge him very harshly for not having seized the opportunity in the year 2000 to embrace the offer that was very courageously made by the then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barack, which involved the Israelis agreeing to 90 per cent of what the Palestinians had wanted."

Finally, the Big Trunk at Power Line has written the best obit of the man whose actions soaked his region in blood, and I urge you to read it in full. No excerpts would do it justice.

Let's hope that the death of this repulsive killer will open the way for genuine reform within the Palestinian hierarchy, beginning with the ousting of his wife and the seizing of her (their) fortune for use in charitable and civic-oriented works, not for funding terrorists or enriching his cronies. Few people have been as ill-served by their leaders or the international press and diplomatic corps that supported Arafat as the Palestinians. They were led into a vicious, protracted fight they cannot win, taught to devalue all human life, including their own, and prevented from assimilating into neighboring Jordan or Egypt by cynical leaders who used them as pawns in their efforts to target Israel and win support from the West. Perhaps now they can be told, bluntly and for the last time, that acceptance of Israel is a prerequisite for stability, not an obstacle.