Curing Arafat's Illness: a Prescription

Since I freely mix the Old Testament and the New Testament in other discourses I have participated in on this board, I see absolutely nothing wrong with a little Old Testament logic here in Arafat's case.

In other words, Christians wishing to hustle him along to his certain fate in hell fire is not wrong - it is just, given his fostering of horrible crimes against humanity. The object of war is to make our ENEMIES die for their country, not vice versa.

Of course, I'm not so stupid as to think that the Muslims don't wish exactly that same fate on the West and Israel, for keeping 3 generations of Palestinians in refugee camps, for example....

It is just that, if one has to pick sides here, I'm for victory for the West over resurgent Islam since I believe that an Islamic victory on a global level would introduce a new techno-enabled "dark age" of which we have never seen the likes....

May God be on OUR side in this battle.... and take Arafat off to his just reward, be that Heaven OR Hell....

By the way, one of the finest moments of the former Clinton administration was during a visit by Arafat to Clinton, when Bill made Yassar wait for him in the lobby while Bill finished receiving head from Ms. Lewinsky in the Oval Office.... No better statement of Arafat's stature in US foreign policy circles need ever be made.

 

Plumbum. Okay. Did I get "syncophants" correct?

 

Re: Re: Re: Curing Arafat's Illness: a Prescription

 

Although I am cognizant of Janko's intended definition of the term "sweet" within this context, I must respectfully reject this designation for the more appropriate term, "compassionate." Jimmy and gbcpastor may or may not be "sweet," but I prefer the term compassionate as it relates to myself.

 

Arafat wasn't the one that castrated the Palestinians. Most of the credit for that achievement goes to the Zionists.

The rise of religious radicalism was probably inevitable under the circumstances.

Old farts like me still remember the 1967 war, but that was 37 years ago. A whole new generation has come of age who have experienced nothing but Israeli military occupation. They hear all the triumphant "Land of Israel" rhetoric, they see the settlements rising around them. They know that they are considered interlopers in the land that their families have occupied for more than a thousand years. Salvation from the surrounding Arab states has grown increasingly unlikely over the years. Marxism has withered.

Religious radicalism always flourishes in situations where people are cornered and when they percieve that they have no earthly options left.

Combine that with the pervasive "reform" movement sweeping through Islam generally, that seeks to respond to the challenge of the West with a return to the imagined purity of the early Islamic community, with the imposition of God-ordained Islamic law, and with a revival of the jihad spirit of warriors for God that led the first Muslims to victory after victory over the invincible empires of their world.

It's an intoxicating cockail. Lots of young Palestinians are getting very drunk on it, and then doing crazy things.

Yasser Arafat didn't create any of that. He has a tiger by the tail, just like Ariel Sharon does.

The question now is whether the situation can possibly be retrieved and what the costs might be to everyone if it isn't.

 

I think the bigger question is whether people WANT the situation to be retrieved. Obviously, many people would prefer vengance to peace, and no cost is too high if it achieves that goal.

 

Vladica Russell: Well, Ezer Weizman wasn't exactly cuddly.

Bill: Good post. Some of us also recall what the Palestinians did in and to Lebanon, which, unlike Jordan in 1970, was too weak and politically stupid to resist them. And, going way back, some of us remember what Beirut once was--the pity of it all.
Minor note: The rest of my family that did not come here went to Beirut when the Communists took over, married Arabs, and assimilated. I've never had any Israeli relatives, but I had Arab family in Lebanon. Note past tense. Thank you, al-Fatah.

 

BillDayson

I think yours is a shrewd analysis. The same dispair underlies the otherwise inexplicable suicide bombing program. They have nothing to lose.

The key to peace, then, is for Palestinians to have hope for a better future. This is EXACTLY why I have condemned the Israeli settlement program since it began after the 1968 cease fire. It is immaterial whether Israel has a legal right to settle or not; the settlement program was short sighted and dangerous.

Sharon, I think, has finally found the courage to stand up to the right-wing Israeli zealots sworn to surrender not an inch. God grant that one of them doesn't murder him in the name of God.

 

Sign that Arafat is feeling better

 

spoiled pizza?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004503090,00.html

 

Paging Chevy Chase

How do you say "Francisco Franco is still dead" in Arabic?

 

But Uncle, is it really NECESSARY for Arafat to be actually alive to carry out his function? After all, he was really just supposed to be an obstacle to peace. Like a highway divider or the Berlin Wall. He can contribute just as much DEAD as he ever did ALIVE.