8 thoughts on “Arafat is Dead”

  2. I refuse to mourn for a bloodthirsty dictator.
    I refuse to feel bad because I thrill at his death.
    I refuse to remember him as a savior of his people and a statesman (Thanks, Senator Kerry for that one).
    I refuse to be party to any commiserations upon his far-too-good-for-him death.
    I refuse to feel anything other than joy for Israel and the Israelis.
    I refuse to be apologetic about my joy at the death of a monster. No one cried for Hitler. No one should cry for one who aspires to BE Hitler.

  3. No healing (or even, apparently) sanity was going to happen under Arafat. Israel could not be well off with Arafat, but isn’t the question how well off they will be if a civil war begins next door? We can hope that the Palestinans will (thoughtfully) realize that Arafat’s way did not work. (And we can also wonder, do we get the leaders we deserve – or have we been lucky in the choices of people like Washington, Lincoln, & Lee? If the latter, we can hope the Palestiians get lucky.)

    Wretchard is pessimistic and quotes Milton.

  4. The problem is that Arafat has vented most of his terrorism on his own people, for many years. In that type of setting, “moderates” cannot get anywhere. The ones brave enough to open their mouths are murdered, and the rest learn to shut up. I am sure the ordinary Palestinians will remain silent until the power struggle for succession to the throne of ruler of the PLO is determined. The winner will be a thug, like Arafat, probably, since it will take a thug to ruthlessly eliminate the other rivals and seize control. Then, to prove his authenticity, he will probably call for an intensified campaign of terrorism against Israel, since dictators need foreign conflict to legitimize their rule. Possessing little hard information, that seems to me to be what is structurally likely to happen.

    While I hope there will be progress, I see little grounds for hope. I hope I will be surprised. Maybe there is a Palestinian Yeltsin out there, who can topple the old order and at least start moving them in a different direction. The whole world is watching.

  5. Who knows what will happen, but note that Arafat’s methods haven’t worked well recently (except for himself), so it’s not obvious that an “intensified campaign of terrorism” against Israel is doable now — unless Israel makes it so by dismantling its recently instituted defenses.

  6. This sounds bad, but I believe that it is better that he died on his own rather than by assassination. Now as for the ‘healing’ of Palestine. Sorry, I just don’t see it happening when their goal is to “drive Israel into the sea”.

  8. I hope one of his aides informed him of the election results before he passed on. I understand that he was following it closely.

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