The Middle East has been a place of turmoil for over a half a century now. At times during Intifadas and uprisings one could turn on Fox News or CNN and see caf?s in flames, buses bombed, dead Palestinians in coffins being carried through the streets by angry grieving mobs and Israeli and Palestinian ambulances bringing people to hospitals with sirens blaring.
Through these times of turmoil one figure stands out in my mind - Yasser Arafat. Israeli Prime Ministers have come and gone with the democratic process, but Arafat was there all along, presiding over the disaster and carnage as a so-called representative of his people.
Arafat is now dead. I think I join the rest of the civilized world in saying "good riddance."
I am now going to part with the talking heads of the mainstream media who can't get themselves to enunciate the word "terrorist" in describing Arafat. Arafat was a cold-blooded terrorist, not a freedom fighter or a patriot worthy of our praise or admiration.
For the past 35 years this man presided over the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), a terrorist organization of its own accord. What else do you call an organization that embraces within its walls Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad?
In addition to the band of murderous thugs it counts as allies, the PLO's charter states that it will not rest until the influence of Zionists (a buzzword for Israeli Jews) is removed from Palestine.
Moreover the Fatah resistance (terrorist) group he personally founded has been responsible for dozens of attacks on Israeli citizens and property. He has also been under suspicion for personally leading the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, another terrorist group.
This man is responsible in part for the murders of the Israeli athletes at Munich and scores of other attacks from the 1960s until today.
Arafat has the blood of thousands of Israelis on his hands, not to mention the scores of Palestinians he sent marching to their deaths to support his sick and twisted ideology.
This might be tough for Palestinian sympathizers to swallow, but take these facts into account: Forbes Magazine ranked Yasser Arafat No. 6 in its 2003 edition of Kings, Queens and Despots. He was worth anywhere from $300 million to $3 to 4 billion depending on the statistics.
This man presided over one of the most destitute regions of the world and yet possessed millions of dollars with no clear means of acquiring such wealth.
Like every good third-world despot, he siphoned money from international aid organizations intended for his people and hid it in personal bank accounts.
A true man of the people, wasn't he? His people live in squalor in refuge camps, without jobs, without running water or electricity and sometimes without food while he lived off their backs.
What's especially disgusting about this situation is that while young men and women were preparing to blow themselves and others to smithereens in Israeli delicatessens or dance halls, unelected demagogues like Arafat wrote checks to their families for their "noble sacrifice." Arafat fed off his people's desperation and poverty.
Instead of engaging the Israelis and the Arab nations in legitimate peaceful political discourse, distributing funds to the needy and encouraging peace, Arafat chose to continue the status quo of violence and jihad.
In 1993, President Clinton and Prime Minister Rabin offered him the free Palestinian state he wanted. He turned his back on them. Again in 2000 he was offered independence for Palestine by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, but again refused the arrangement.
The world community, however, bestowed upon this monster the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. I don't know what's worse: the fact that he won the award or that some thought him worthy of such an award.
In his final days, as he lay dying in a French hospital, Arafat was visited by Jacques Chirac, the prime minister of France. Chirac would probably defend himself by saying it was some sort of state visit.
I am not surprised that our enemy-in-disguise, France, would recognize such a man as worthy of an official meeting with its chief of state, but this one point needs to be brought to light - Arafat was never elected by his people and ruled like a tyrant for the past 30 years.
The Europeans and the worldwide liberal community wonder why we Americans are so disengaged from their concerns.
Well, my friends, when you embrace terrorist despots like Arafat and give him awards, what do you expect from us other than complete disregard and disgust for you?
Tyrannical demagogues like Arafat have been living off the human race like leeches since time immemorial. They whip their own people into a hate- filled frenzy, blaming all of their problems on others, and wage brutal unending wars while lining their own pockets at the expense of their people.
Yet there are still some brainwashed lunatics who will hail Arafat as a freedom fighter rather than a terrorist.
The difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist in my book is that a freedom fighter is one who fights legitimate foreign aggression or oppression, will never target the innocent and will lay down his arms as soon as his goal has been achieved.
Arafat did none of these things. He deliberately encouraged violence against a people who desperately want peace. He ordered the slaughter of thousands of innocents and he never once stopped in his radical call for jihad.
