Vatican praises Arafat for Palestinian vision

ABC News ^ | 11-11-04

[SJackson]

The Vatican has praised Yasser Arafat as a charismatic leader who struggled to win independence for his people, and repeated its support of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Pope John Paul, who last met Arafat in 2001, retreated into private prayer when he was told of the death of the Palestinian leader earlier on Thursday in Paris, a Vatican source said.

The Pope, who made a historic trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2000, sent a message saying he was particularly close to the Palestinian people "in this hour of sadness".

The 84-year-old Pope's message said he prayed that the "star of harmony" would soon bring peace to the Holy Land and that both Israelis and Palestinians could live "reconciled among themselves as two independent and sovereign states".

Earlier, a statement by the Vatican's chief spokesman called Mr Arafat the "illustrious deceased" and asked God to grant eternal rest to his soul.

"The Holy See joins the pain of the Palestinian people for the passing of President Yasser Arafat. He was a leader of great charisma who loved his people and tried to guide them towards national independence," said the statement by chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

The official statement was bound to displease Israel because it made no mention of militant attacks, which the Jewish state blamed on Mr Arafat and insists must stop before the stalled peace process can get back on track.

In recent years the Vatican continued to recognise Mr Arafat as the legitimate leader of the Palestinians after Washington and Israel had written him off.

But Vatican officials privately criticised him for what one called "jumping off the peace train".

"There is no doubt that he was a towering figure for his people but his great mistake was not to sign on at Camp David," a senior Vatican prelate told Reuters.

"That was a great failure and a lot of problems stemmed from that," he said. "He missed his date with history."

At a US-brokered a peace summit in 2000 both sides came close to a final accord that would have established an independent Palestinian state, but the talks broke down over the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

Washington and Israel blamed Mr Arafat for the failure.

Over the past four years, the Vatican's improvement in relations with the Palestinian Authority coincided with a deterioration of relations with Israel.

The Pope repeatedly criticised Israeli incursions into Palestinian territories and last November, the Vatican was shocked when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to Rome for several days but did not ask to see the Pope.

[antceecee]

This is another situation of who do you believe:
The world diplomatic community or YOU'RE OWN LYIN' EYES?
Those of us who lived through the tenure of the Arafat years are witness to history. No matter how they spin it now, we saw Arafat in real time.

[jb6]

Here's a typical example of your propagandistic lies: -including arming Iran with nukes

Which suggests that he is giving them nuclear weapons technology. Sorry, fact is, Russia is selling them a civilian reactor with a contract to return depleted uraniam. Do I agree with it, no. Is it even half as bad as you constantly make it, no. Pakistan, a US allie, with the backing of China, our Most Favored Trading status holder, are spreading actual missile and weapons technology.

You can not open your mouth without some lie or half truth (at best) escaping forth. That's what got you banned the previous times.

[TapTheSource]

"It says "he sought to lead them towards national independence."

Don't you guys get it? Arafat was a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary whose single-minded mission was to destroy Israel--not create an indpendent Palestinian state as so many are wont to believe. Arafat would have just as equally tried to destroy a Palestine state if it began interfering with Soviet long-range strategy for the Middle East (as can be seen by the following):

---

Inside Story: World Report July, 1994

The SHADOW behind the Middle East Peace Conference

Copyright (c) 1994 by Inside Story Communications

Since at least 1931, international Communism has sought to conquer the Middle East through the "pan-Arab" movement.1 According to plans, individual Arab nations would be "liberated" from colonial rule, then fused into a united Arab regional government-a precursor to world government. Strategically, the Middle East contains such vital assets as the Suez Canal and oil reserves, and provides access to the Mediterranean Sea as well as to three continents.

Naturally, the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 began interfering with Communist plans. Thus the Communists quickly set about to destroy that Jewish nation. The pro-Soviet Nasser regime of Egypt created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964, and placed in its leadership such recruits as Yasser Arafat, a veteran of the Communist revolution in Algeria.2 The PLO's mission: sponsor revolutions to overthrow the non-Communist governments of Israel, Iran, Turkey, and the Arab nations.

But after five wars and three decades of revolution, the Communists could see by 1989 that the frontal approach would not soon topple Jerusalem. At that point, the Soviet Bloc switched to a new strategy of deception. By faking the death of Communism, Moscow has finally opened the door to its victory. And behind its newly-accelerating drive to eliminate Israel stands its architect, the latest head of the Soviet secret police.

His name is Yevgeniy Primakov.

The shadow is cast...

By the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Soviets could see that Israel would never be defeated through direct conflict. Despite early successes while invading Israel's buffer zones in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, Syrian and Egyptian forces soon found themselves in full retreat. Realizing that Israel would first have to yield its occupied territories before it would become militarily vulnerable, the Soviets chose a new tactic known as the "Phased Plan."

The PLO officially adopted this plan in June, 1974.3 Phase 1 would involve pressuring Israel to withdraw from its territories, upon which the PLO would establish a People's Republic of Palestine. In Phase 2, the heavily-armed Communist state would serve as the launching point for a Soviet-backed invasion of Israel.

How could Israel be induced to surrender strategic land-to the PLO, no less? The Communists decided to call for a "peace conference" between Israel, the Arab states, and the PLO. The catch, moreover, was that the Soviet Union would co-sponsor the talks. Such an international conference would pit Israel against all other participants, heightening pressure for concessions.

Soviet official Andrei Gromyko started the process in 1973, offering to open diplomatic relations with Israel in return for a peace conference. The Israelis first refused, but the damage inflicted by the Yom Kippur War changed their minds. In late 1973, Israel agreed to international talks in Geneva, Switzerland. The Soviets co-sponsored the meeting, though still refusing to recognize Israel diplomatically. Only the PLO was not officially allowed to participate.

Henry Kissinger played the key role in furthering Soviet aims.

Israeli journalist Matti Golan reported that, during the first few days of the Yom Kippur War, while the Communist governments of Yugoslavia, Algeria, Libya, Iraq, and the Soviet Union were re-supplying Egypt and Syria,4 Kissinger had delayed the emergency shipment of U.S. arms to Israel. Then, once Israel had regained its military balance and scored decisive victories, he went behind the Israelis' backs and negotiated a ceasefire directly with the Soviets. Nor was this difficult for him; as Soviet ambassador Anatoliy Dobrynin later revealed, the Soviets had quietly appointed Kissinger as their representative at the same time that he was representing the United States.5 Kissinger then pressured Israel into accepting the ceasefire, which returned portions of the Sinai peninsula to Egypt.

By 1977 the Soviets were trying to restart the Geneva talks, this time in an expanded format. Yevgeniy Primakov appeared on the scene, albeit secretly, to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Primakov again dangled the promise of Soviet diplomatic relations, this time in exchange for Israel allowing the PLO into the Geneva talks. Begin refused.6

Later that year, the Soviet timetable was temporarily thrown off by the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel, which were negotiated directly between the two parties. Nevertheless, the Soviets moved patiently forward, gradually preparing the noose with which to hang Israel.

Primakov was ascending the ranks of Soviet power, gradually taking control of Middle East policy. By 1983, he had become Vice President of the World Peace Council (WPC), an internationally active front for the Soviet KGB founded in 1950.7 Its president was Romesh Chandra, a Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India. But the real power resided in the hands of the Soviet KGB officer at Chandra's side. The WPC not only organized the disarmament movement in the West, but also served as a center for Soviet coordination of terrorist groups around the world, including the PLO.8 At that same time, Primakov held the post of Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee,9 which worked out of the same Moscow office as the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee. These groups have operated as conduits through which the KGB sends weapons and other logistical support to the PLO.10

Primakov was busy implementing Soviet policy toward Israel. In September, 1982, the Soviet Union made the first official call for an international Middle East peace conference, to negotiate for a PLO state in the Israeli territories.11 Soviet influence at the United Nations led that organization, unsurprisingly, to endorse the call in 1983. Echoing the Soviets, the U.N. called for "the Palestine Liberation Organization, the representative of the Palestinian people, to participate... in all efforts, deliberations and conferences on the Middle East" for "the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in Palestine."12 Under Primakov's growing power,

Communist parties throughout the world soon joined in the chorus.

...and lengthens...

By the time Mikhail Gorbachev was taking over in 1985, the Soviet government was openly boasting that a Middle East peace conference would be one step on the road to "the ultimate triumph of communism everywhere."13 Primakov was quickly moving into the center of Soviet power, close to Gorbachev himself. Working with the Central Committee's International Department, Primakov led an elite group of Communist strategists in redesigning and accelerating the Soviet drive to destroy Israel. Gorbachev did not even participate in its design, according to foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze.14

To put his newly-formulated theory into practice, Primakov assumed the role of "special envoy" for Gorbachev during the Persian Gulf crisis in late 1990. He used that position to travel the Middle East, drumming up support for a peace conference to negotiate over Israel's territories.15

In fact, he had already been mobilizing every available tool of diplomacy, revolution, and war to intensify the pressure on Israel. In 1987, he told the Lebanese publication Hawadith that Israel would have to attend, and allow the PLO to participate in, an international meeting before the Soviets would restore diplomatic relations. He visited the capitals of Arab states, using every bit of Soviet influence to push the Arabs into joining the call.16

In 1988, he brought Soviet advisors to Syria as part of a massive drive to arm that Communist satellite, preparing it for a state of war and placing an ominous military threat on Israel's northern perimeter.17 Revolutionary action in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was meanwhile instigated by the PLO, the Palestinian Communist Party, and Islamic Jihad starting in December of 1986-a full year before the intifada was officially recognized and named.18

Analyzing the prospects for forcing Israel into peace talks, Yasser Arafat [alleged KGB agent - HM note] could boldly declare in 1987 that "there is now for the first time an actual international consensus on the question of an international conference on a Middle East settlement" [emphasis in original].19 But despite the growing momentum, Israel itself persistently refused to enter such loaded talks. Primakov needed one more element to complete the push: a war.

The perfect man for the job was Saddam Hussein, longtime dictator of the Communist government in Iraq. Since the Iraqi-Soviet Friendship Treaty of 1972, the Iraqi secret police and military had become mere extensions of their Soviet counterparts.20 The majority of Iraqi weapons were Soviet-supplied, and five to six thousand Soviet "advisors" ran the Iraqi state from within.21 Primakov himself presumably supervised the Soviet arms shipments to Iraq leading up to, and during, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. After Iraq set in motion the Gulf crisis, Primakov visited Hussein as Gorbachev's representative. According to British intelligence analyst Christopher Story, Primakov told Hussein to demand an international conference between Israel and the PLO as a precondition to leaving Kuwait.22 Hussein obeyed, and after the Persian Gulf War had ended in 1991, Hussein's demand was adopted by the Bush administration. Finally the Israelis could no longer resist the political heat, and attended the conference in Madrid, Spain, that October.

Primakov had completed stage one in the drive to destroy Israel.

...until darkness falls....

The Soviet Union, mainly through its KGB strategist Primakov, had carefully designed and executed the entire Middle East peace conference since 1973. Thus the "death" of Communism in 1989, and especially the "breakup" of the Soviet Union in 1991, should have ended the entire process. The whole edifice of delicately applied pressure, fragile alliances, and Communist deception should have disintegrated, leaving the PLO isolated and impotent. Most importantly, Primakov and his fellow Communist leaders should have had to flee Russia to avoid prosecution, as happened to Nazi criminals after World War II.

In fact, the exact opposite chillingly materialized. Upon seizing power in the new Russia, Boris Yeltsin promptly reorganized and expanded the KGB, making it more powerful and active than ever before. Top Communists retained their positions, and all Soviet policies continued as before-except in a newly accelerated mode. What of Primakov? He was immediately promoted, becoming Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, the main arm of the new KGB. This places him in charge of an estimated 500,000 agents worldwide, operating in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and elsewhere.23

Primakov quickly laid to rest any notions that the various Soviet republics or Eastern European nations would be allowed any independence from Moscow. At a December, 1991, press conference, he openly admitted that his agency was exercising its powers "to maintain a common military, economic and central intelligence network among the Republics of the former Soviet Union."24 Tens of thousands of secret police officers from East Germany and other Eastern European nations had already been incorporated into the KGB during the 1989 changes.25

At a press conference in late 1993, Primakov confirmed the warlike attitude of the "former" Soviet Union by warning NATO that he and his fellow Soviets might assume a new military posture toward the West at any time. Polish defector Zdislaw Rurarz described a follow-up question from a reporter:

Primakov was asked whether his presentation of the issue was in any way endorsed by President Boris Yeltsin. Surprisingly enough, he said that there was no need for that!26

Despite Yeltsin's membership in the Soviet Communist Party since 1961, even he serves as a mere figurehead.27 He takes his orders from the likes of Primakov and the rest of the KGB leadership, all of them hardened Communists following long-term strategy.

In the Middle East, this is being translated into a PLO victory over Israel. The alleged collapse of Communism has thrown anti-Communist forces in the West into disarray. No longer recognizing where PLO terrorism or the drive for a peace conference come from, confused anti-Communists in all countries have abandoned political opposition to such Soviet moves-effectively turning over the political arena to the left. Now that the Communists can move rapidly without significant resistance, Israel is finally yielding control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the PLO. And Israeli Prime Minister Ytzhak Rabin has since offered to give away to Golan Heights to Communist Syria.

Unless Americans and Israelis wake up soon, Soviet forces will be dismantling the remains of a neutralized, demoralized Israel.

references

Link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1260794/posts

[jb6]

You will have to PROVE that it's a good thing that Russia opposes our operation in Fallujah.

Opposes how? Again, you suggest action. The only action they took was to mouth a "concern" oooooooo, so much for that.

[jb6]

Say hi to your favorite dictator for me

You mean the man who was elected overwhelmingly, who has 3 more years on his term, is bound by a constitution and an elected parliment? Yup, that's your dictator? Oh, and you're not a pro-islamic propagandist, my not so holy arse.

[jb6]

Truth is truth and does not become outdated.

Which is something you are whole heartedly unfamiliar with.

[jb6]

which is precisely what I am doing on this forum (much to your chagrin).

The only thing you've done on this forum in a single minded manner, in each of your reincarnations, is pump out propaganda against Russia and the growing US-Russian alliance and shift blame away from Islam. Oh but occassionally you do take the time to hate Catholics too. One I guess must have variety in his/its life.

[MississippiMan]

The 84-year-old Pope's message said he prayed that the "star of harmony" would soon bring peace to the Holy Land and that both Israelis and Palestinians could live "reconciled among themselves as two independent and sovereign states".

I guess he doesn't buy into that biblical stuff about the promised land belonging exclusively to Israel, eh?

MM

[Alouette]

Actually the Zohar (also known as "Kabbalah") although passed down orally through the generations, was written down by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who lived during the 2nd Temple period.

Moses received the Torah (Pentateuch) on Mt. Sinai and it has been handed down intact throughout the generations.

The Anshe Knessia Gedolah (Sages of the Great Sanhedrin) which convened immediately after the end of the Babylonian exile, sealed the canon of the 24 books of the Tanakh. However the scriptures had been written down and were well known many centuries before.

[broadsword]

GOOD... GOD... ALL... MIGHTY!!!!!

Just what the hell is going on in my Church? What demon of hell is running things there? I have had it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[k2blader]

Those of us who lived through the tenure of the Arafat years are witness to history. No matter how they spin it now, we saw Arafat in real time.

Indeed, we did. And what we saw will not be forgotten.

[SJackson]

Actually, it's simple if you read it. From the Phased Plan. The unity with communism and establishment of the ummah is a nice touch too.

1. To reaffirm the Palestine Liberation Organization's previous attitude to Resolution 242, which obliterates the national right of our people and deals with the cause of our people as a problem of refugees. The Council therefore refuses to have anything to do with this resolution at any level, Arab or international, including the Geneva Conference.

2. The Liberation Organization will employ all means, and first and foremost armed struggle, to liberate Palestinian territory and to establish the independent combatant national authority for the people over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated. This will require further changes being effected in the balance of power in favour of our people and their struggle.

3. The Liberation Organization will struggle against any proposal for a Palestinian entity the price of which is recognition, peace, secure frontiers, renunciation of national rights and the deprival of our people of their right to return and their right to self-determination on the soil of their homeland.

4. Any step taken towards liberation is a step towards the realization of the Liberation Organization's strategy of establishing the democratic Palestinian state specified in the resolutions of previous Palestinian National Councils.

5. Struggle along with the Jordanian national forces to establish a Jordanian-Palestinian national front whose aim will be to set up in Jordan a democratic national authority in close contact with the Palestinian entity that is established through the struggle.

6. The Liberation Organization will struggle to establish unity in struggle between the two peoples and between all the forces of the Arab liberation movement that are in agreement on this programme.

7. In the light of this programme, the Liberation Organization will struggle to strengthen national unity and to raise it to the level where it will be able to perform its national duties and tasks.

8. Once it is estabished, the Palestinian national authority will strive to achieve a union of the confrontation countries, with the aim of completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory, and as a step along the road to comprehensive Arab unity.

9. The Liberation Organization will strive to strengthen its solidarity with the socialist countries, and with forces of liberation and progress throughout the world, with the aim of frustration all the schemes of Zionism, reaction and imperialism. 10. In light of this programme, the leadership of the revolution will determine the tactics which will serve and make possible the realization of these objectives.

[SJackson]

I'm not the one you have to convince :>)

[TapTheSource]

"Opposes how? Again, you suggest action. The only action they took was to mouth a "concern" oooooooo, so much for that."

Russia has done a hell of a lot more than voice concern. They opposed us in the UN (all the while taking bribes from Saddam), provided lists of hit men so Saddam could eliminate his European critics, armed and trained Saddam's Baathists during the lead up to the Gulf War, smuggled out his explosives (and probably his WMD as well) to Syria and Lebanon...oh, did I forget to mention they are building Iran's nuclear capability, and even backing them (along with Red China) against US attempts to use the IAEA to halt the same. As I said, the list goes on and on.

Your loyalties are plain for everyone to see, jb6. It is you (the Putin-lover) who support the Muslim fanatics in Iran and elsewhere, not me. Unless, of course, Putin bombs the Chechens. Then you are against the Muslims and for the War on Terror. All I have to do is follow Putin's evil foreign and domestic policy undulations to know what your next opinion will be.

[TapTheSource]

Yes, I remember reading about the phased plan in the book "Inside the PLO." It's a very eye-opening read if you haven't had a chance to take a look at it yet. But thanks for the reference, I will be sure to put it to good use in the future!

[Zionist Conspirator]

There are plenty of common, decent "simple" folk in the Catholic Church.

Yeah, the ones who were born into it. You have to be an overintellectualized egghead worthy of Swift's flying island of Laputo in order to be admitted to it.

Your descriptions of it as some type of elitist club simply don't ring true.

It's an elitist club of a few ethnic groups (Irish, Hispanic, Polish, Ukrainian, French, etc.). The Church doesn't care how "old fashioned" these people are. But the Ph.D. types who make up its clergy don't want any rednecks stinking up the place.

You never responded to a single issue I raised. Typical.

I don't mock all Fundamentalists. Just certain ones.

The ones who are useful to you by getting your candidates voted in (which about half the Catholics are no good for) and for making Mel Gibson richer than he already is?

Since Fundamentalists by definition believe in total Biblical inerrancy (which your Church is theoretically, though that doesn't mean anything to you), I'd guess you do mock all Fundamentalists. Unless (like name-calling liberals of the past week) you demand scientism of poor whites but celebrate Black literalism as a legitimate expression of "culture."

[Zionist Conspirator]

Thank you for posting. As an Evangelical, if I'd read about Billy Graham saying such things, I'd be completely disgusted, clearly distance myself from his viewpoint, and demand he retract his words. Some people seem to think this is "just another anti-Catholic thing". But it isn't.

When Dr. Graham passes away, you can bet the corrupt, inbred cesspools that are the ancient liturgical churches won't even notice.

Now, when Bin Laden goes . . . !

[TapTheSource]

Thought you might be interested in post #283--TTS.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Before his death, Moses wrote 13 Torah Scrolls. Twelve of these were distributed to each of the 12 Tribes. The 13th was placed in the Ark of the Covenant (with the Tablets). If anyone would come and attempt to rewrite or falsify the Torah, the one in the Ark would "testify" against him.
Devarim Rabba 9:4

Don't waste your time with these irreverent blasphemers. The authenticity of the Torah frightens them, so they've been promoting its literary dissection for over a century.

[TapTheSource]

"Thank you for posting. As an Evangelical, if I'd read about Billy Graham saying such things"

Actually, Billy Graham has a lot to answer for as well. It's sort of off topic, but does anyone remember when Billy Graham snubbed the Siberian Seven episode and then went on to proclaim to the world that religious freedom existed in the Soviet Union!!!???