Remembering Arafat-How the media views the Godfather of Terror one year after his death.

Yassir Arafat, frequently cited as the father of modern-day terror, died one year ago. One would think that in describing this man and his dark legacy, the mainstream media would reflect the reality that marked his rule. Instead, the media ignore the real impact this man and his disastrous choices have had on the region.

Reuters states that Arafat failed "to realize his dream of a Palestinian state." Yet Arafat was offered his "dream" and rejected it. The article, heavy on the official commemorations of Arafat, does not even mention the historic Camp David Summit in which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat Gaza, a Jerusalem capital, and a sizeable percentage of the West Bank. As former American President Bill Clinton said this week, Arafat made a "colossal, historical blunder" in not accepting Israel's offer. Former U.S. envoy Dennis Ross offered this explanation at the time, "Arafat could not accept Camp David... because when the conflict ends, the cause that defines Arafat also ends."

Not only did Arafat reject Barak's offer, he launched a war of terror that has since claimed the lives of over 1,000 Israelis and even more of his own people. Typical of Reuters' assessment:

But Arafat did not passively "sink" into violence. He consciously rejected the offer of a state and chose violence. His legacy, as documented by HonestReporting here, is far from complicated. Under his "leadership," the PLO pioneered the hallmarks of modern terrorism:

Meanwhile, Arafat stole hundreds of millions of dollars that were supposed to help the people he claimed to champion. The Palestinian Authority today is trying unsuccessfully to deal with the rampant corruption that he institutionalized. According to Issam Abu Issa, the former chairman of the Palestine International Bank:

The New York Times referred to the official Palestinian commemorations in the Muqata, Arafat's headquarters, in this manner:

After the Oslo Accords, Arafat was free to travel both within the disputed territories and abroad. It was only after repeated terrorist attacks, which were shown to be supported directly by Arafat, that Israel confined him to a large cluster of buildings in central Ramallah.

The Washington Post also removes personal responsibility from Arafat by noting that "Israel stopped regarding Arafat as a partner after Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down in late 2000 and a second Palestinian uprising erupted."

Both the breakdown in talks and the spontaneous "eruption" of violence were direct choices of Arafat. It is astonishing that the media have chosen not to point out these basic facts.

Perhaps The Arab Times, hardly an unbiased source, said it best several years ago when they wrote:

This week, three suicide bombers blew up three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing 57 people, including many Palestinians. Newsweek ran a story accompanied by the following picture. Look carefully at the wall behind the family in mourning. An HonestReporting subscriber wrote to us:

Let's not forget Black September.

http://www.cedarland.org/black.html

The Death of Black September

On 1 March 1973, an eight man Black September hit squad shot their way into the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum where a farewell party was being held for American chargé d’affaires J. Curtis Moore. They took the guests hostage and made the usual demands for the freeing of prisoners in several countries. It was an affront to Sudan’s President Ja’afar Numeiri, the man who had saved Arafat during the fighting in Amman, an insult to the Saudis, who had continued to fund the PLO, and a direct threat to American diplomats. The negotiations with the semi-literate terrorists got nowhere and the grisly episode ended with the cold-blooded murder in the embassy basement of Moore, the American Ambassador, Cleo Noel, and the Belgian chargé d’affaires, Guy Eid.

The terrorists were in radio contact and receiving instructions from Beirut during the day long siege but the Israeli claim that Arafat personally gave them orders, has never been verified and consequent events suggest it was untrue. The Israelis failed to produce the tapes of Arafat issuing instructions; the American monitoring of the operation produced nothing to incriminate him. Arafat despatched an emissary to the Sudan to mend relations with that country. The brutality of the attack disgusted the world. Public opinion had turned even more against the Palestinians and Arafat was on the defensive.

The Israelis were not going to take Palestinian terrorist attacks lying down and went on the offensive. Following the Munich massacre the Israelis sent out hit squads to take out those involved, the Israelis managed to assassinate two out of the three Palestinians that survived the shoot out at Munich and the Israelis also managed to liquidate at least a dozen others involved in the planning. Israeli actions reached a climax in March 1973 in the form of Operation Spring of Youth, the assassination by an Israeli hit squad in Beirut of PLO terrorist leaders Kamal Adwan, Mohammed Yusuf Al Najjar and Kamal Nassar.

All of this was now too much for Arafat, his top terrorists were dropping like flies and all the attacks had achieved was a popular distaste towards the PLO and the Palestinians. Arafat decided it was time to quietly halt terror attacks against the West and so Black September for the most part vanished quietly into the night but its members continue to be hunted down.

Even though the West was to be spared Palestinian terror the Middle East was not to be so fortunate and Lebanon was to suffer more than any other country at the hands of the Palestinians whose actions and those of their allies resulted in fifteen year war and the destruction of the Lebanese state.

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