It's Official - Palestinian Leader Arafat Dies at 75

[King Tech Quadafi]

I wouldnt be happy with Arafat until I could take a shit in his cold dead mouth.

Lol. Whats the matter Rubenstien? Lost a couple homies in the varrio to a PLO bomber?

[Sikotic™]

You guys are scumbags. What's your beef with Arafat.
RIP and fuck the assholes who poisoned him.

For real damn, the guy changed his ways, But hate him or not, let the man rest.

[Machiavelli]

i dont know where to start.

You can start by knowing that Arafat was a terrorist himself who ordered suicide bombings in Israel and Jordan.

[Woodrow]

What's your beef with Arafat.

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."

God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a creature so evil -- as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity.

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.

Another commentator, columnist Gwynne Dyer, asked, "So what did Arafat do right?" The answer: He drew worldwide attention to the Palestinian cause, "for the most part by successful acts of terror." In other words, butchering innocent human beings was "right," since it served an ulterior political motive. No doubt that thought brings daily comfort to all those who were forced to bury a child, parent, or spouse because of Arafat's "successful" terrorism.

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?

How is it possible to reflect on Arafat's most enduring legacy -- the rise of modern terrorism -- without recalling the legions of men, women, and children whose lives he and his followers destroyed? If Osama bin Laden were on his deathbed, would we neglect to mention all those he murdered on 9/11?

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.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/11/11/arafat_the_monster/

[*Jamal*]

years later, no one speaks of JENIN anymore. The dead children have been forgotten. Everyone knows ISRAEL, but who ever recalls the names of ITS victims?

[King Tech Quadafi]

Tech knew this would happen.

Out of the woods comes all the goofs yappin about how Arafat was a terrorist, and a crook etc etc etc

Which I mean he was, I aint questioning that . I never denied Arafat attacked civilians or looted cash.

But the nerve of some to highlight this things and not speak a word of Israels wrongdoings which make Arafat look like a Saint.

In light of the actions of one man, an entire generation of oppression and persecution is forgotted. Forget the fact that these Palestinians have been shit on, lets look at the Palestinians leader, who - unbelievable as it may seem- chose to fight back with whatever was in his disposal.

When you speak about the man, keep the conflict in mind, keep Israel in mind, understand the context of what youre sayin.
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Thats one beef with this anti Arafat shit, the second one is the propogation of outright lies. And even after I have called motherfuckers out on this, these lies still continue to spread.

Sikotic, you the homie, dont believe this nonsense about the man changing.

The post 98 bullshit media reports will  have yall believe that there was this historic gathering initiated by courageous Israelis and the vanglorious William Clinton. Palestinians grudgingly coming along. There in Camp David, a wonderful offer was made of 97% of the West Bank. Arafat refused to, and then after storming out, he "chose a path of violence", "resorted to terrorism", "picked violence over peace", something to that effect, these journalists have great vocabularies u know.

Arafat since then has been vilified, the second intifada attributed to him, and its consistency since attributed to his support of it/lack of condemnation. Arafat is snubbed and called an "obstacle to peace" by Bush, while Sharon is getting state visits to Washington and hailed as a "man of Peace" by Bush (both are exact quotes). No more peace partner Arafat,  Road Map thrown out the window.

So what really happened?

Clinton in an effort to cement his legacy brought both sides to the table, and sought to enforce a solution. Barak then made this wonderful offer: A fragmented Palestinian state in half of Gaza and 97%of the West Bank. Military checkpoints? Oh, they stay. Israeli settlements? Oh, they stay and are considered a part of Israel. Doesnt that effect the sovereignity of Palestine you say? Why of course it does. Because roads leading to these settlements and checkpoints are controlled by Israel. Considering the depth and location of these settlements, and you have a fragmented state sliced up by settlements, checkpoints and roads. Foreign soveriegnity? Restricted.
Foreign Affairs? Controlled by Israel. This is not theories or lies, this is the nature of this offer. The only thing these fuckin newspapers will tell you about the offer was the eye catching 97% figure, Baraks "unprecedented" offer, and Arafats "torpedoing" the process.
Of course this fuckin offer was unprecedented. As opposed to the handfuls of shit youve been offering them for the last 50 years, a cup of cofee and a couple of guns would be unprecedented. In essence, as Chomsky and Finkelstein have pointed out, what we would have is a Bantustan, autonomous, fragmented, separated, paralyzed Palestinian ghetto. But hey, its a cheap market for Israeli goods! 

We would be discussing Arafats death 3 years ago, if he came home with this offer in his pocket. Would make Chamberlain and his letter of peace from Hitler seem trivial in comparison. Which leads us to the aftermath of this failed process, the second intifada attributed to an outright aggressive attempt by Arafat to reek mayhem and shed jewish blood in order to destroy the 3rd biggest nuclear power in the world. One cafe at a time right, ese?  . Of course this explanation makes much more sense to logic-deprived quasi-conservative commentators (Hello, Englewood), then the simple fact that this fuckin pathetic excuse for a "peace" offer was THE BEST THEY COULD DO. This is under heavy American pressure to make some sort of a minor concession. If this is the best the Israelis were willing to accept, what the fuck do you want Palestinians to do? Launch a campaign of non violence? Boycott the buses? Million Arab march on Tel Aviv? Of course theyre gonna erupt and go all out, this is not war chump. This is not a fight between two countries, this is a population under ya routine military occupation times 100. This is erasing of an entire people. This is stealing of land, stealing of identity. This is eradication of a culture, this is renaming of villages, this is redrawing of citizenship, this is raping of women, this is indiscriminate killing of civilians, this is torture, this is genocide.

This is something your dumb feeble mind dont understand Woodrow Englewood. Youre too predictable, youre articles Tech was laughin at 3 years ago, but youre the little engine that could of TOT, youve gone from just posting articles to actually creating full fledged posts and I commend you for that, but you got a while to go before you bring anything decent to the table when the Middle East is the topic. Siiiin? Now go wipe your ass with that article of yours.

[Sikotic™]

Tech knew this would happen.

Out of the woods comes all the goofs yappin about how Arafat was a terrorist, and a crook etc etc etc

Which I mean he was, I aint questioning that . I never denied Arafat attacked civilians or looted cash.

But the nerve of some to highlight this things and not speak a word of Israels wrongdoings which make Arafat look like a Saint.

In light of the actions of one man, an entire generation of oppression and persecution is forgotted. Forget the fact that these Palestinians have been shit on, lets look at the Palestinians leader, who - unbelievable as it may seem- chose to fight back with whatever was in his disposal.

When you speak about the man, keep the conflict in mind, keep Israel in mind, understand the context of what youre sayin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thats one beef with this anti Arafat shit, the second one is the propogation of outright lies. And even after I have called motherfuckers out on this, these lies still continue to spread.

Sikotic, you the homie, dont believe this nonsense about the man changing.

The post 98 bullshit media reports will  have yall believe that there was this historic gathering initiated by courageous Israelis and the vanglorious William Clinton. Palestinians grudgingly coming along. There in Camp David, a wonderful offer was made of 97% of the West Bank. Arafat refused to, and then after storming out, he "chose a path of violence", "resorted to terrorism", "picked violence over peace", something to that effect, these journalists have great vocabularies u know.

Arafat since then has been vilified, the second intifada attributed to him, and its consistency since attributed to his support of it/lack of condemnation. Arafat is snubbed and called an "obstacle to peace" by Bush, while Sharon is getting state visits to Washington and hailed as a "man of Peace" by Bush (both are exact quotes). No more peace partner Arafat,  Road Map thrown out the window.

So what really happened?

Clinton in an effort to cement his legacy brought both sides to the table, and sought to enforce a solution. Barak then made this wonderful offer: A fragmented Palestinian state in half of Gaza and 97%of the West Bank. Military checkpoints? Oh, they stay. Israeli settlements? Oh, they stay and are considered a part of Israel. Doesnt that effect the sovereignity of Palestine you say? Why of course it does. Because roads leading to these settlements and checkpoints are controlled by Israel. Considering the depth and location of these settlements, and you have a fragmented state sliced up by settlements, checkpoints and roads. Foreign soveriegnity? Restricted.
Foreign Affairs? Controlled by Israel. This is not theories or lies, this is the nature of this offer. The only thing these fuckin newspapers will tell you about the offer was the eye catching 97% figure, Baraks "unprecedented" offer, and Arafats "torpedoing" the process.
Of course this fuckin offer was unprecedented. As opposed to the handfuls of shit youve been offering them for the last 50 years, a cup of cofee and a couple of guns would be unprecedented. In essence, as Chomsky and Finkelstein have pointed out, what we would have is a Bantustan, autonomous, fragmented, separated, paralyzed Palestinian ghetto. But hey, its a cheap market for Israeli goods! 

We would be discussing Arafats death 3 years ago, if he came home with this offer in his pocket. Would make Chamberlain and his letter of peace from Hitler seem trivial in comparison. Which leads us to the aftermath of this failed process, the second intifada attributed to an outright aggressive attempt by Arafat to reek mayhem and shed jewish blood in order to destroy the 3rd biggest nuclear power in the world. One cafe at a time right, ese?  . Of course this explanation makes much more sense to logic-deprived quasi-conservative commentators (Hello, Englewood), then the simple fact that this fuckin pathetic excuse for a "peace" offer was THE BEST THEY COULD DO. This is under heavy American pressure to make some sort of a minor concession. If this is the best the Israelis were willing to accept, what the fuck do you want Palestinians to do? Launch a campaign of non violence? Boycott the buses? Million Arab march on Tel Aviv? Of course theyre gonna erupt and go all out, this is not war chump. This is not a fight between two countries, this is a population under ya routine military occupation times 100. This is erasing of an entire people. This is stealing of land, stealing of identity. This is eradication of a culture, this is renaming of villages, this is redrawing of citizenship, this is raping of women, this is indiscriminate killing of civilians, this is torture, this is genocide.

This is something your dumb feeble mind dont understand Woodrow Englewood. Youre too predictable, youre articles Tech was laughin at 3 years ago, but youre the little engine that could of TOT, youve gone from just posting articles to actually creating full fledged posts and I commend you for that, but you got a while to go before you bring anything decent to the table when the Middle East is the topic. Siiiin? Now go wipe your ass with that article of yours.

Interesting perspective, homie. I never looked at the situation like that.

[Woodrow]

Here's another perspective.

It's ironic that the man who personified the Palestinian movement was neither born in the region it claims, nor conforms to his own organization's definition of Palestinian identity. Yassir Arafat, whose real name is Abdel-Rahman Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, was born in August 1929 in Cairo, son of an Egyptian textile merchant. He was sent to Jerusalem as a small child after his mother died, then returned to Egypt via Gaza.

Throughout his career, Arafat's Egyptian background was a political impediment and source of personal embarrassment. One biographer notes that upon first meeting him in 1967, 'West Bankers did not like his Egyptian accent and ways and found them alien,' and to the very end Arafat employed an aide to translate his Egyptian dialect into Palestinian Arabic for conversing with his West Bank and Gaza subjects.

As a young man, Arafat took no part in the formative experience of the Palestinian movement ― the 1948 Arab-Israeli war ―  but he would nonetheless claim refugee status throughout his life: 'I am a refugee,' he cried out in a 1969 interview, 'Do you know what it means to be a refugee? I am a poor and helpless man. I have nothing, for I was expelled and dispossessed of my homeland.' (Arafat's congenital lying would continue for decades.)

In the mid-1950s, Arafat joined the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, then rose to the head of the Palestine Student Union at the University of Cairo. In the late 1950s Arafat moved to Kuwait,  where he co-founded Fatah ('Palestine National Liberation Movement' ― an acronym meaning 'conquest'), the faction that would later gain control over the entire Palestinian movement.  Fatah's motley ranks of Islamists, communists and pan-Arabists expanded via brute violence. 'People aren't attracted to speeches, but rather to bullets,' Arafat quipped at this stage. (At right: Fatah logo of rifles and grenades over Israel)

Fatah began military-style training in Syria and Algeria in 1964, and the following year tried unsuccessfully to blow up a major Israeli water pump. Fatah's stated goal was the obliteration of the State of Israel, and well before the 1967 war would supply a pretext, Arafat's organization repeatedly attacked Israeli buses, homes, villages and rail lines.

This violence against Israeli civilians was a pillar of the Palestinian National Covenant (the foundational charter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization - PLO), which states that 'the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence' and that 'armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not a tactic.' (Despite repeated Palestinian commitments in the late 1990s to annul these sections of the covenant, it was never officially changed.)

Arafat's public profile got a boost in 1968, when the IDF raided a Fatah terrorist stronghold in the Jordanian village of al-Karameh. The uniformed,  keffiyah-clad Arafat took this opportunity to project himself as a fearless Arab leader who, despite the post-Six Day War gloom, dared to confront the Israelis. The image stuck, and Fatah's numbers swelled with new recruits.

Arafat and Fatah consolidated power through bribery, extortion and murder, and at the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo in February 1969, Arafat was appointed head of the PLO ― a position he would never relinquish.

By the late 1960s, heavily-armed, Arafat-led Palestinians had formed a terrorist 'state within a state' in Jordan, not only attacking Israeli civilian targets, but also seizing control of Jordanian infrastructure.

The tension reached a height during late 1970, when Jordan's King Hussein cracked down on the Palestinian factions. During this bloody conflict, known as 'Black September', Palestinians hijacked four Western airliners and blew one up on a Cairo runway (pictured at right), to both embarrass the Egyptians and Jordanians and, in their words, 'teach the Americans a lesson for their long-standing support of Israel.' With the broad publicity this generated, Arafat had hit the world stage.

When King Hussein drove Arafat's faction out of his Jordanian kingdom (causing thousands of civilian deaths), they relocated in Lebanon. As in Jordan, Arafat soon triggered a bloody civil war in his previously stable host country. Simultaneously, the PLO launched intermittent attacks on Israeli towns from southern Lebanese positions.

Yassir Arafat then brought the high-profile terrorist act to western soil. In Sept. 1972, Fatah-backed terrorists kidnapped and murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic games. And in 1973, Arafat ordered his operatives in the Khartoum, Sudan office of Fatah to abduct and murder US Ambassador Cleo Noel and two other diplomats. (In 2004, the FBI finally opened an official investigation against Arafat for the Khartoum murders.)

The wanton violence fueled Arafat's political goals, as his presence on the world stage grew:  In 1974, he became the first representative of a nongovernmental organization to address a plenary session of the UN General Assembly (pictured at left) In the speech, with a gun holster strapped to his hip, Arafat compared himself to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Arab heads of states declared the PLO the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinians, the PLO was granted full membership in the Arab League in 1976, and by 1980 was fully recognized by European nations.

In 1978-82, the IDF invaded Lebanon to root out  PLO groups that had continually terrorized the northern Israeli populace. The U.S. brokered a cease-fire deal in which Arafat and the PLO were allowed to leave Lebanon; Arafat and the PLO leadership eventually settled in Tunisia, which remained his center of operations until 1993.

During the 1980s, Arafat received financial assistance from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, which allowed him to rebuild the battered PLO. This was particularly useful during the first Palestinian intifada in 1987 ― Arafat took control of the violence from afar, and it was mainly due to Fatah forces in the West Bank that the anti-Israel terror and civil unrest could be maintained. Arafat would then become nearly the only world leader to support Saddam Hussein in the 1991 Gulf War. (Saddam would later repay this loyalty by sending $25,000 checks to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.)

In the early 1990s, the U.S. led Israel and the PLO to negotiations that spawned the 1993 Oslo Accords, an agreement that called for the implementation of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over a five-year period. The following year Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.

In 1994, Arafat moved his headquarters to the West Bank and Gaza to run the Palestinian Authority, an entity created by the Oslo Accords. Arafat brought with him from Tunisia an aging PLO leadership that would bolster his ongoing monopoly over all Palestinian funds, power and authority. Elections in 1996 extended Arafat's control over the PA, but under the Oslo agreement, the term of that candidacy ended in 1999. Arafat never allowed new elections to take place.

While Israel went about implementing its side of the Oslo agreements ― removing troops from nearly all Palestinian areas, recognizing the PA, and educating for peace ― the PA utterly failed to live up to its commitment to renounce and uproot anti-Israel terrorism. Instead, unprecedented incitement from Arafat's official PA media and school textbooks, and active and passive PA support for terrorist groups led to a string of suicide bombings in the mid-1990s that killed scores of Israeli civilians. In October, 1996, at the height of the Oslo years, Arafat cried out to a Bethlehem crowd, 'We know only one word - jihad! Jihad, jihad, jihad! Whoever does not like it can drink from the Dead Sea or from the Sea of Gaza.' [For more on the failure of Oslo, see HonestReporting's documentary film, Relentless.]

In July 2000, U.S. president Bill Clinton attempted to keep the Oslo Accords viable by convening a summit at Camp David between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. There, Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in Gaza and 92% of the West Bank, and a capital in East Jerusalem ― the most generous offer ever from an Israeli government. Yassir Arafat rejected the offer and ended negotiations without a counteroffer. As American envoy Dennis Ross concluded, 'Arafat could not accept Camp David... because when the conflict ends, the cause that defines Arafat also ends.' [See also this interview with Ross on Oslo.]

Immediately following this breakdown, the PA media machine under Arafat's control ramped up the war rhetoric, and preparations were made for riots that were unleashed following Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount. The Arafat-supported 'al Aqsa intifada' would continue for four years. This unprecedented wave of anti-Israel terrorism, which would result in over 1,000 Israeli deaths, was marked by over 120 Palestinian suicide bombers and the growth of an Islamic martyrdom cult.

This stage of violence revealed that Arafat and the PA had never abandoned their longstanding plans to liquidate the Jewish state. Arafat had told an Arab audience in Stockholm in 1996, 'We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion... We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.' Likewise, Arafat explained to a South African crowd  in 1994 that the Oslo agreement was merely a tactical ruse in the larger battle to destroy the Jewish state ― a modern version of the Muslim prophet Mohammed's trickery against the ancient tribe of Quraysh. Arafat's colleague Faisal al-Husseini was even more explicit, describing the Oslo process as a 'Trojan Horse' designed to promote the strategic goal of 'Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea' ― that is, a Palestine in place of Israel.

The final phase in Arafat's life-long commitment to organized terror was channeled through the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a Fatah group that was responsible for many of the most deadly attacks against Israeli civilians between 2000-2004. Though many media outlets described a mere 'loose affiliation' between Arafat and this terrorist group, the evidence clearly indicated a direct financial and organizational bond between the two:

▪ In November, 2003 a BBC investigation found that up to $50,000 a month was funneled by
 
An ammunition bill for the terrorist Al Aqsa Brigade, signed by Yassir Arafat - see larger version
 
Fatah, with Arafat's approval, directly to the Al Aqsa Brigades, for the purpose of organizing bombings, snipings and ambushes against Israeli civilians.

▪ Documents captured by the IDF in 2002 indicated Fatah's 'systematic, institutionalized and ongoing financing' of the Al Aqsa Brigades. (See Arafat's signature on the weapons budget, and this full report from Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.)

▪ The leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Tulkarm told USA Today on March 14, 2002: 'The truth is, we are Fatah, but we didn't operate under the name of Fatah...We are the armed wing of the organization. We receive our instructions from Fatah. Our commander is Yasser Arafat himself.'

In addition, Arafat granted free rein to the radical Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to perpetrate dozens of horrific acts of civilian murder between 2000-2004.

In January 2002, the Israeli Navy seized a Gaza-bound, PA-owned freighter ― the Karine A ― that was loaded with more than fifty tons of Iranian ammunition and weapons, including dozens of surface-to-surface Katyusha rockets.  (See more on the Karine A.)

In June 2002, upon recognizing Arafat's ongoing financing and abetting of terrorism, U.S. President Bush called for Arafat's removal from power. Progress toward peace required, according to Bush, 'a new and different Palestinian leadership...not compromised by terror.' Release of a  U.S.-backed 'road map' for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was therefore delayed until such a new Palestinian leader emerged. On its part, the Israeli government chose to isolate Arafat in his Ramallah compound, the 'Muqata', where he would remain from early 2002 until his final days, and where his burial is expected to occur.

In April 2003, hours after Mahmoud Abbas assumed  the role of  Palestinian prime minister, the official road map was released and diplomatic progress began. But Arafat consistently undercut the authority of Abbas, leading to Abbas' resignation and the halting of the road map peace process.

Over the course of his 'revolutionary' career, Arafat siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars of international aid money intended to reach the Palestinian people.

Estimates of the degree of Arafat's wealth differ, but are all staggering: In 2003, Forbes magazine listed Arafat in its annual list of the wealthiest 'Kings, Queens and Despots,' with a fortune of 'at least $300 million.' Israeli and US officials estimate Arafat's personal holdings between $1-3 billion.

And while the average Palestinian barely subsisted, Arafat's wife Suha (at left) in Paris received $100,000 each month from PA sources as reported on CBS' 60 Minutes. That CBS report also noted that Arafat maintained secret investments in a Ramallah-based Coca Cola plant, a Tunisian cellphone company, and venture capital funds in the U.S. and the Cayman Islands.

Arafat also used foreign aid funds to pay off cronies who bolstered his autocracy: An International Monetary Fund report indicated that upwards of 8% ($135 million) of the PA's annual budget was handed out by Arafat 'at his sole discretion.' And Arafat's select PA policemen, far from keeping the peace, were repeatedly among the suicide bombers and snipers.

Money was just one method of strengthening Arafat's power apparatus. Critics of his PA government were routinely imprisoned, tortured or beaten. One example: In 1999, Muawiya Al-Masri, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, described Arafat's corruption to a Jordanian newspaper. For this, he was attacked by a gang of masked men and shot three times. Al-Masri survived the ordeal and described Arafat's grip on PA power: 'There is no institutional process. There is only one institution ― the Presidency, which has no law and order and is based on bribing top officials.'

From 2000-2004, Arafat permitted Muslim imams to incite unprecedented anti-Israel and anti-American violence from their mosques and through official PA media. Arafat's Religious Affairs Ministry employed preachers who regularly called for children to 'martyr themselves', and PA television glamorized the act of suicide bombing.

Under Arafat, the Palestinian Authority school textbooks denied Israel's very existence, and jihad was presented to Palestinian children as an admirable course of action. The Jewish people, meanwhile, was represented to schoolchildren as a tricky, greedy and barbarous nation.

Freedom of the press was virtually non-existent during Arafat's reign in Gaza, Jericho and Ramallah ― if it didn't speak favorably of Arafat, it didn't get printed in the PA-controlled media. Moreover, the PA enacted a systematic policy of intimidation of foreign journalists. One case among many: When an AP cameraman captured footage of Palestinian street celebrations following the 9/11 attacks, he was kidnapped, brought to a PA security office, and Arafat's cabinet secretary threatened that the PA 'cannot guarantee [his] life' if the footage was broadcast. 

Yet beyond the terrorism, extortion, embezzlement and intimidation lies Arafat's most unfortunate ongoing impact: The inculcation of murderous values in an entire generation of Palestinians, who have been educated ― under Arafat's direction ―  to continue the fight of jihad against Israel, rather than compromise to end the decades-long conflict.

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Yassir_Arafat_1929-2004.asp

[King Tech Quadafi]

*rubs eyes*

Is that Smerlus posting or Englewood? Either way, this idiot completely skips my post and does the same thing my post predicted and criticized. Posting an article that is filled with lies, in an effort to smear the man (post 2000), and again brings up Palestinian violence with no context.

Man, I think you have an information glass cieling. I think youve hit your limit. Your brain dont have the capacity to understand what Tech is sayin.

"Lungs is too small to hot box with God"

[Woodrow]

*rubs eyes*

Is that Smerlus posting or Englewood? Either way, this idiot completely skips my post and does the same thing my post predicted and criticized. Posting an article that is filled with lies, in an effort to smear the man (post 2000), and again brings up Palestinian violence with no context.

Man, I think you have an information glass cieling. I think youve hit your limit. Your brain dont have the capacity to understand what Tech is sayin.

"Lungs is too small to hot box with God"

Shoot. I was expecting another half hour rant...

[King Tech Quadafi]

*rubs eyes*

Is that Smerlus posting or Englewood? Either way, this idiot completely skips my post and does the same thing my post predicted and criticized. Posting an article that is filled with lies, in an effort to smear the man (post 2000), and again brings up Palestinian violence with no context.

Man, I think you have an information glass cieling. I think youve hit your limit. Your brain dont have the capacity to understand what Tech is sayin.

"Lungs is too small to hot box with God"

Shoot. I was expecting another half hour rant...

Just admit you out classed woman. How far into my post did you get? Third Sentence? Second Paragraph? 

[Woodrow]

*rubs eyes*

Is that Smerlus posting or Englewood? Either way, this idiot completely skips my post and does the same thing my post predicted and criticized. Posting an article that is filled with lies, in an effort to smear the man (post 2000), and again brings up Palestinian violence with no context.

Man, I think you have an information glass cieling. I think youve hit your limit. Your brain dont have the capacity to understand what Tech is sayin.

"Lungs is too small to hot box with God"

Shoot. I was expecting another half hour rant...

Just admit you out classed woman. How far into my post did you get? Third Sentence? Second Paragraph? 

I don't even read your posts. You can think you've "out classed" me, but the truth is, I don't care what you have to say.

[King Tech Quadafi]

Ha ha ha, pathetic.

[I TO DA GEEZY]

WoodRow I'd like to thank you for bringing those articles,Such horrible truths can't be hidden. A scumbag terrorist is dead and the whole fuckin board is with teary eyes, what would u say if it was Osama?....

[I TO DA GEEZY]

Tech knew this would happen.

Out of the woods comes all the goofs yappin about how Arafat was a terrorist, and a crook etc etc etc

Which I mean he was, I aint questioning that . I never denied Arafat attacked civilians or looted cash.

But the nerve of some to highlight this things and not speak a word of Israels wrongdoings which make Arafat look like a Saint.

In light of the actions of one man, an entire generation of oppression and persecution is forgotted. Forget the fact that these Palestinians have been shit on, lets look at the Palestinians leader, who - unbelievable as it may seem- chose to fight back with whatever was in his disposal.

When you speak about the man, keep the conflict in mind, keep Israel in mind, understand the context of what youre sayin.
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Thats one beef with this anti Arafat shit, the second one is the propogation of outright lies. And even after I have called motherfuckers out on this, these lies still continue to spread.

Sikotic, you the homie, dont believe this nonsense about the man changing.

The post 98 bullshit media reports will  have yall believe that there was this historic gathering initiated by courageous Israelis and the vanglorious William Clinton. Palestinians grudgingly coming along. There in Camp David, a wonderful offer was made of 97% of the West Bank. Arafat refused to, and then after storming out, he "chose a path of violence", "resorted to terrorism", "picked violence over peace", something to that effect, these journalists have great vocabularies u know.

Arafat since then has been vilified, the second intifada attributed to him, and its consistency since attributed to his support of it/lack of condemnation. Arafat is snubbed and called an "obstacle to peace" by Bush, while Sharon is getting state visits to Washington and hailed as a "man of Peace" by Bush (both are exact quotes). No more peace partner Arafat,  Road Map thrown out the window.

So what really happened?

Clinton in an effort to cement his legacy brought both sides to the table, and sought to enforce a solution. Barak then made this wonderful offer: A fragmented Palestinian state in half of Gaza and 97%of the West Bank. Military checkpoints? Oh, they stay. Israeli settlements? Oh, they stay and are considered a part of Israel. Doesnt that effect the sovereignity of Palestine you say? Why of course it does. Because roads leading to these settlements and checkpoints are controlled by Israel. Considering the depth and location of these settlements, and you have a fragmented state sliced up by settlements, checkpoints and roads. Foreign soveriegnity? Restricted.
Foreign Affairs? Controlled by Israel. This is not theories or lies, this is the nature of this offer. The only thing these fuckin newspapers will tell you about the offer was the eye catching 97% figure, Baraks "unprecedented" offer, and Arafats "torpedoing" the process.
Of course this fuckin offer was unprecedented. As opposed to the handfuls of shit youve been offering them for the last 50 years, a cup of cofee and a couple of guns would be unprecedented. In essence, as Chomsky and Finkelstein have pointed out, what we would have is a Bantustan, autonomous, fragmented, separated, paralyzed Palestinian ghetto. But hey, its a cheap market for Israeli goods! 

We would be discussing Arafats death 3 years ago, if he came home with this offer in his pocket. Would make Chamberlain and his letter of peace from Hitler seem trivial in comparison. Which leads us to the aftermath of this failed process, the second intifada attributed to an outright aggressive attempt by Arafat to reek mayhem and shed jewish blood in order to destroy the 3rd biggest nuclear power in the world. One cafe at a time right, ese?  . Of course this explanation makes much more sense to logic-deprived quasi-conservative commentators (Hello, Englewood), then the simple fact that this fuckin pathetic excuse for a "peace" offer was THE BEST THEY COULD DO. This is under heavy American pressure to make some sort of a minor concession. If this is the best the Israelis were willing to accept, what the fuck do you want Palestinians to do? Launch a campaign of non violence? Boycott the buses? Million Arab march on Tel Aviv? Of course theyre gonna erupt and go all out, this is not war chump. This is not a fight between two countries, this is a population under ya routine military occupation times 100. This is erasing of an entire people. This is stealing of land, stealing of identity. This is eradication of a culture, this is renaming of villages, this is redrawing of citizenship, this is raping of women, this is indiscriminate killing of civilians, this is torture, this is genocide.

This is something your dumb feeble mind dont understand Woodrow Englewood. Youre too predictable, youre articles Tech was laughin at 3 years ago, but youre the little engine that could of TOT, youve gone from just posting articles to actually creating full fledged posts and I commend you for that, but you got a while to go before you bring anything decent to the table when the Middle East is the topic. Siiiin? Now go wipe your ass with that article of yours.

so the 97% figure is not enough right? - why because the checkpoints were gonna stay? or may be because of the settlements? You make this seem to be a very easy decision, it was as easy for Arafat to decline, I believe....One thing though, Your heroes the "Worrior Palestinians", those "freedom fighters" they never recognized Israel's right to exist, you're talking about how Israel wouldn't give them a proper slice but fact remains that a slice is not what they wanted, they wanted and still want the whole cake...That's proably why the Settlements weren't even mantioned in their original demand( the claim was brought to the table only through Oslo), and why would they bring such a claim towards a state whose right for existance they denie, The settlements are a part of Israel and Israel shouldn't even exist, That only proves that there were no peace motivations on behalf of Arafat, he went into Oslo only to rase compromise on behalf of Israel while in fact maintaining his old philosophy, He brought the Palestinian Declaration to recognize Israel's existance on paper While new demands emerged. When acts of terrorism sprung Arafat rushed to condemn them while behind the scenes being the one in charge of every and each one of them.
 Israeli checkpoints and control was and is mandatory, If they recieved 97% of the west bank the first thing Palestinian radical groups would think was that they're on the right track, and they would increase their actions, That would show the world Arafat's true face before it was necessary, he coudln't alow that, And as soon as Israel would get the clearence to retaliate properly his grand scheme would be  destroyed...Barak new that, His theory was that new school left winger type," I'll give them what they need to create a state but if they keep atackin we can crush them formally and with wide support, If they're gonna be peacefull then we both win".