At this moment, Yasir Arafat is (was) on life support. Strange, how I am surprised that he nears (or has met) death. In my life, his name is as familiar as any world leader, as any famous athelete, actor, or an other kind of world staged personality. He is a force, a presence, consistent to his goals; an unwavering symbol for a people as lost and homeless as a people can be.
Arafat's fame is dichotomous. Some think him a blood dripping terrorist, others view him as an inplacable fighter for the rights, identity, and redemption of the Palestinian people. Historians will deal with that problem. Death always followed him. Death underscored his existence; and the former existence of thousands of Jews and Palestinians. They died because of the priorities of larger, more powerful nations, of Zionist ambitions, of geopolitical necessities, of ghosts as old as Imperial Rome, and as new as our recently reelected President. They died wanting what everyone else in the so called "Middle East" (a convenient geographical term of reference to Americans)wanted (and got); a slice of the pie, a place to call their own, an identity symbolized by law, economic progress, and security. There is nothing terribly strange about those desires. Men like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, started real trouble too. Those men fought for what they believed. They were intense, defiant, and willing to wage war to create a different version of society. In fact, if present day technology existed in the late 18th century, is it impossible to disregard the possibility that jet planes would have been used as weapons against England? Flown perhaps, straight into the heart of Buckingham Palace, or the Parliament?
Think about that.
Today's terrorist (even that word has relative meaning) is often tomorrow's hero. History is so changeable, so maleable. Arafat is surely a murder, an assassin, a scourge to the Jews, a royal pain to the Americans, the Russians, the Germans, the British, the French, and to any other country trying to rule the middle of the world; a "middle" as culturaly different, and politically chaotic as, say, America was during the years 1860 to 1865.
The "problem" of the Palestinians (whatever SHALL we do with them?) is exacerbated by the ambitions of Zionist knowing the dwindling regional supply of water for their country is nearly as important as their security. They are as diligent in keep "their" land, as Arafat is (was) to acquire some of it; as diligent to kill Palestenians as Arafat is (was) to kill Jews.
This never ending violence became such a familiar, repeating cycle, that the "Average American"grew weary of hearing about it. They know (and never cared to know) as much about Zionist expansion as they do about Islamic culture.Nothing, plus nothing, equals nothing. For decades they read this story or that, conerning another (and another, and another ) "terrorist act" like the box scores of a baseball game.
Until a beautiful morning in September 2002.
Then, it all came into focus.
Then, it cost American blood.
Eventually, this country will realize how utterly insupportable (and impossible) our political goals in Iraq are. They will tire of body bags comming home. They will ask why all of this is necessary, why the Jews are so opposed to a people wanting what the Americans wanted, over two hundred years ago. If Arafat's successors are clever, the two issues will become linked. Perhaps American frustration will lead, eventually, to a Palestinian state. Consider the irony of America demanding the wish fulfillment of the world's most famous, and longest living "terrorist"?
But what of Arafat? How will History judge him?
A murderer, a terrorist, or someone on the level of George Washington?
Strangely, he spent a large portion of his life on airplanes, because he had nowhere to go. The Jews made sure that almost no place was safe for him, for very long. Such was the revenge of Zion. They always wanted (want) him dead; arguably, with good reason. Arguably, because they knew(know) he represented (represents) a collective Zionist injustice; a fact they could not (cannot), or would not (will not) admit.
Whatever the reasons, the Jews finally (or almost finally) have their way.
Arafat will never see Palastine as a nation state, will never see a day without war. He was (is) an enigma, surrounded by an ideal, and complicit to a seemingly never ending cycle of violence and death.
But in time, he will be recognized as the "Father of Palastine".
But where (and when) is he to be buried? That question might bring us all to our senses.
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