Why Protect Arafat?

Around the world, government officials and diplomats are worried over the health and safety of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasser Arafat. As a result of Israel’s occupation of his headquarters in Ramallah, Arafat has been isolated on a single floor, at times without electricity. The photograph of Arafat, sitting in the dark, with cell phone in hand and sidearm on the desk before him, makes one wonder if perhaps the stalwart leader of the Palestinian national movement hasn’t finally backed himself into a corner from which no escape is possible. On the heels of his plea for help, however, the rest of the world has raced to Arafat’s aid, at least verbally.

The U.S. seems to have contented itself with repeated Israeli assurances that Arafat would not be harmed, but merely “isolated,” while the Arab nations have made repeated threats suggesting that Arafat’s death at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces would result in a regional crisis. World opinion wants Arafat alive, functional and in-charge.

A look at history and current events, however, leads one to question precisely why this is so.

Arafat is a political and rhetorical genius, which has enabled him to manipulate Israel and the greater international community for far too long. Since Arafat’s glorious return from exile in Tunis and Israel’s agreement to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, Israel’s security has not increased but decreased. While seeking peace, Israel has allowed Arafat and the Palestinian terrorist organizations to set up a base of operations in the West Bank and Gaza, allowing them freedom to plan and execute terrorist missions with an ease unseen since the PLO operated from Lebanon. Arafat himself has proven himself more interested in his own power than in aiding his own people—or in making peace with Israel.

Evidence for Arafat’s involvement with terrorism is overwhelming. Since the beginning of the formal peace process, inaugurated with the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993, Arafat has addressed his Western audience in one guise and the Arab world in another. On CNN, Arafat has never hesitated to speak of peace and reconciliation with Israel, yet there are countless accounts of speeches, in Arabic, in which Arafat has continued to call for acts of violence against Israel and the eventual destruction of the Jewish state.

Examples include a speech given in March last year, in which Arafat praised “the blood of the martyrs as a precious asset to liberate the land,” and a better-known talk in a mosque in Johannesburg in 1994, in which he compared the struggle for “Palestine” to a story from the Koran which tells of a peace treaty signed by Muhammad with a strong enemy tribe. In the story, after building his strength, Muhammad abrogated the treaty, and then slaughtered the members of the tribe. The implication for the current situation is clear.

Arafat is willing to say whatever it is his audience wants to hear. When it appears Israel is about to move decisively against him, Arafat will cry out his desire for peace. When his own people become restless, he takes the guise of a warmonger.

Arafat’s double-talk is counterproductive, but it pales in significance when compared to his actions. Arafat’s Fatah and its associated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have claimed responsibility for a number of suicide bombings. Other organizations, more loosely affiliated with Arafat, have perpetrated many more. Arafat has allied himself with Iran in order to smuggle heavy weapons to Palestinian forces, clearly illustrated by the Karine A weapons-boat debacle, and has refused to jail and hold radical militants. A document released by the Israeli government, found last week in the PA compound in Ramallah, actually details financial compensation demanded by Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade for its orchestration of suicide attacks. Furthermore, one of the recent suicide attacks was perpetrated by a man only recently released from a Palestinian prison. Muhammad Hashaika, whose attack killed three and wounded dozens more, had been arrested by Palestinians upon discovery of his intention to commit a suicide attack, but he was promptly released, another weapon in the war against Israel.

Through it all, the world somehow cries out for Yasser Arafat, and lauds him as peacemaker and statesman. Why? The Israeli populace does not trust him and has no faith that he will make serious concessions or uphold his end of any agreement. The Palestinian people, constantly fed visions of bloody glory and victory, were never led to a position where peace and compromise were possible.

While Israel faced harsh criticism for its policies that punished the entire Palestinian population in the aftermath of the most recent attacks, the most severe condemnation has only now emerged, when the PA, the political structure, is being destroyed. The terrorists cannot be allowed to strike with impunity; Israel must be allowed to hit back at those responsible.

The facts indict Arafat and the PA; the international protection afforded to the Palestinian political establishment is misplaced and deeply troubling. How does Arafat benefit the future of his people or the future of Israel? Arafat must go before peace is possible.

David J. Gorin ’03, a Crimson editor, is a chemistry concentrator in Eliot House.