"He is a terrorist and this is a war against ALL terrorism. There is nothing more to prove here. This is hypocrisy of the heighest order. Arafat and his terror war have been going on for decades and the US still can't say this? Even after he murders Americans?"
Yes, the U.S. could immediately say that Arafat is a terrorist if we want to go ahead with declaring war on all of Islam.
On the other hand, if we want the vast majority of the Islamic world to fight with us against terrorism, if we want the Islamic world to change for the better by finally agreeing to live in peace with Israel, then we are going to have show incontravertable evidence of Arafat getting caught being involved either with 9/11 or with Al-Qaeda today.
And frankly, I think that we are close to that point of being able to show that Arafat is dirty, even to a very skeptical Islamic world.
In the meantime, withdrawing from Gaza is yet one more way that Sharon and Bush are boxing the terrorists in (conceptually). I don't expect you to like it. I wouldn't stand for it myself if I lived in Israel, but if Israel plays along smartly for just a tiny bit longer, then this whole plan will overwhelm the terrorists. They are boxed in. They simply have no way to stop their own defeat now.
Even if Arafat was found to have connections with Al Queda or 9/11, the Islamic world could care less. They support Al Queda. The only terror groups they oppose are those seeking to overthrow their dictatorships so that they could create new ones (like Saudi Arabia, who could care less about Al Queda murdering Americans, but when Al Queda strikes in their country they use it for propaganda purposes to show they are against terrorism, while funding Hamas. And Pakistan too, fighting Al Queda which seeks to overthrow Musharaff, while sending terrorists to murder Indians.)
It is not terrorism to target a non-Muslim, by the thought of militant Islam. Neither are non-Muslims people civilians, they are combatents.
The Islamic world's governments are on the side of Arafat and his organization's quest to destroy Israel.