Yasser Arafat

Arafat is meanwhile sitting in his heavily guarded compound, now announcing his readiness to die the death of martyr, now appealing over mobile phone to the world for help. Yet the Israelis claim that they have no intention of either killing or arresting him. (and, truth to tell, they could do it any minute.) Though in a recent address to the nation, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon called Arafat a terrorist and an enemy of the free world.
As to Arafat’s appeals, one can take seriously only those pleading for help. In spite of all the sensual garden of delights that Islam promises to its martyrs, none of Palestinian leaders has ever sought a heroic death. All this heavenly promises are used by them to talk Arab youths into becoming kamikaze.
It’s not by accident that a recent series of terrorist acts has occurred during the last half of the month when the peacemaking process seemed to be coming out of the impasse: the Saudi initiative, calling Israel to return to the 1967 frontiers in exchange for peace guarantees from the Arab world, the trip to the Middle East of US special envoy Anthony Zinni. And here again come new explosions in Israeli cities with dozens of people dead and hundreds injured.
In this connection a question comes up again what part Arafat did play in all these events. What is he? A complete political nobody, who has no power to control the situation, or that very ‘puppeteer,’ who keeps all these terrorist Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the like under his personal control.
Trumpets of the Palestinian leadership, in particular, Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Kheiri al-Oridi, are facing a difficult dilemma, namely, how, on the one hand, to convince the world that Arafat enjoys immense authority among the people and that all his orders are being carried with implicit obedience, and, on the other hand, how to relieve Araft of responsibility for terrorist acts. Understandably, Arafat’s mouthpieces consider that to make … Israel responsible for all that turmoil in the region could be the much-sought-for golden mean. That would have given them a chance to say that Arafat’s ability to influence extremists depends on Israel’ behavior. Further developments would have then followed the familiar pattern, a terrorist act, then Israeli reprisals, and angry shouts, placing the blame on Tel-Aviv. At the moment Israel is ‘guilty’ of not retreating to the 1967 frontiers, in future it will be doomed to be ‘guilty’ of not pulling out of the Middle East at all.
The similar role of the ‘party at fault’ is awaiting international peacekeepers, on whose deployment in the region strongly insists the Palestinian leadership. It’s clear that common observers whose duty is to maintain record of terrorist acts won’t be of any help in the region where terrorist acts of “non-controlled extremists” are no secret. If some peacekeeping contingent will be sent out to the Middle East with a mandate for using force (as it was in Kosovo or East Timor), they will be soon dubbed “Tel-Aviv’s accomplices” by Palestinian propagandists. However, it depends on what countries would agree to send there their peacekeepers. Some might serve as a good cover for terrorists.
Israeli reprisals are used by the Palestinians for anti-Israel propaganda to the fullest. Wails about dying civilians and appeals to humane feelings, the ever-lasting mask of being eternally offended are nothing but familiar tricks that are still very efficient. Very few in the West are denouncing the Palestinians, with human rights groups, the press, political figures tending to criticize Israel. A group of pacifists from western Europe is going to Ramallah to become a “live shield” for Arafat. Theoretically, that phenomenon could be explained by the fact that with some, for example, Israel, one could speak about humanism, with others (to wit, those who profess Islamic fundamentalism) there is no point of such talks.
Israel has a good chance to expose to the whole world the mainspring of the secret “art of puppeteering.” For instance, through an open trial. Especially, after arresting, according to Israeli sources, at least 70 persons suspected of terrorist acts.