Posted on 11/11/2004 5:07:02 AM PST by truthandlife
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.
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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.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
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.
Much as I would like to agree here, I also am very careful about deciding what is in the mind and heart of God. I think that's a little out of our league.
I'm glad somebody in the media has a memory. Arafat ran the PLO and its affiliates. They were and remain terrorist organizations. He's the only leader to have appeared before the UN General Assembly with his pistol, which says a lot about the UN and Arafat.
The BOSTON GLOBE???
A writer for the Boston Globe with an ounce of common sense?
He just blew a job with the New York Times.
Way to go pal.
Where was this guy when Kerry needed to be exposed?
Still don't quite understand how this Christ based religion works, huh?
This guy nailed it
This nonsense about turning Arafat into Nelson Mandela is despicable. Arafat is the father of airline hijackings, the murderer of Munich...
He has hell to pay and he'll pay it.
This is so typical of the left, Weep for the criminals and trivialize the victims
Good post. The man was truly a monster and I certainly don't shed a tear. The world is better without him.
Jeff Jacoby has always been the Globes token conservative. He is a great writer. Do a archive search under Jacoby on FR. He has some of the best articles
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?s=Jacoby&ok=Search&q=deep&m=all&o=time&SX=419369bbcc78df6696f54a83d57392ca01dcde83
Jimmah Carter is in mourning...our resident dictator/terrorist-coddler....GAG
Jacoby has long been the Globe's token conservative. Look up some of his past articles, any of his past articles. He gets muzzled/spiked from time to time, but he's been a consistent, articulate voice of conservatism in that paper.
Hey Kerry!!
The PLO has an opening.
Interested?
It's amazing that what God is willing to forgive is unlimited.
That being said, while I'm hesitant to assume a persons relationship with out creator, I doubt Arafat took advantage of that grace.
God hates the sin, not the sinner. Even Arafat could have turned it all around if not for his hardned heart. But then again he wouldn't have been the leader of the PLO for very long after he became a Christian. Probably get blown up by one of the people who loved him so much when he was doing his part to in the death of innocents.
bttt
What Arafat did right was to make murder and terror a lucrative and noble business...from the Left's perpective.
Jeff Jacoby is the only writer worth reading in that liberal fishwrap. As usual, Jacoby is right on the money with this analysis of Arafat, the smelly, murderous POS.
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