A Look Arafat's Life And Leadership
unsigned, The Toronto Star, 10 Nov. 2004
Palestinians are coming to grips with the realization that Yasser Arafat, the only leader they have known, is passing from the Middle East political scene without achieving his ultimate goal of a separate Palestinian state for his people. To Palestinians the world over, Arafat has always been more than a mere leader. Emotional crowds hail him as"our father." He has been the icon of Palestinian identity, the symbol of a marginalized people's tenacious will to survive, and of their constant yearning for a state they can call their own.
As head of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969, through eight Israeli prime ministers, Arafat marketed the once-obscure Palestinian cause with cunning, violence, terrorism and statesmanship. Historians credit him for rallying his people from near-extinction to near-statehood. But they will also record that Arafat could not say Yes to a Palestinian state in 2000 when he might have. That must now fall to someone more decisive, more forward-looking and more open to compromise.
But Palestinians' next leader will never rival Arafat as a national liberation hero who was also by turns an idealist, a guerrilla, a terrorist, an exile, a president, an autocrat, a patronage dispenser and a prisoner of his foes.
He once held aloft an olive branch - and a pistol - at the United Nations. In 1988, at a podium 2,500 km. away from Jerusalem, he proclaimed a"Palestinian state" from exile. He shared the Nobel peace prize with martyred Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for his part in a 1993 peace that established the Palestinian Authority, for recognition of Israel and a pledge to renounce terror.
"I am a freedom fighter resisting Israeli occupation for the sake of my people," he told the Star in 1988,"so that we can have a place to live freely in our free land." That was at a time when the PLO and its sympathizers had killed some 500 people in the previous 20 years, including the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and air and sea hijackings.
That bloodshed soon became a torrent. Some 5,000 Palestinians have died on Arafat's watch since 1988, battling Israelis or in suicide attacks. So have more than 1,000 Israelis. It has been a criminally futile slaughter.
But Arafat the national hero was also the serial strategic blunderer. He precipitated crises in Jordan in 1970 and in Lebanon in 1982 that saw him driven into exile. He made himself a pariah in 1990 by supporting Iraq's attack on Kuwait. He refused former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak's offer of a state in 2000, while his militants planned suicide bombings.
The seeds of that catastrophe were sowed years earlier. In 1994, Arafat made a triumphal entry into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But his Palestinian Authority would never nurture a stable, demilitarized, Israel-accepting culture. All were Israeli preconditions for ending the occupation. Ever-mistrustful, Arafat refused to groom a successor. Worse, he failed to nurture a spirit of realism, compromise and tolerance in his people. At the same time, Israelis never felt they had a true partner for peace.
When current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wrote off Arafat as a negotiating partner, the world just shrugged. Arafat would spend his final years penned in a crumbling compound.
But he would never forfeit his people's affection.
How can Palestinians honour Arafat? By rallying behind the Palestinian Authority to avert chaos. By quelling anti-Israel violence. And by electing leaders who can deliver the state for which so many suffered.
If Arafat was fated not to die in Palestine, he ought one day to be buried there, a hero to his 9 million people and at peace with his neighbours.
Beginning today, U.S. President George Bush must turn Arafat's departure into a fresh start. Bush, who envisaged a viable Palestinian state by 2005, has just received a renewed mandate to broker the Mideast peace.
New Palestinian leaders must dedicate themselves to the"peace of the brave" that Arafat often invoked, but failed to deliver. They will need political and economic support from the U.S., its allies and Arab states to assert their authority, disarm extremists and quell incitement and terror.
Sharon, too, must reroute his security fence out of Palestinian areas, as he plans a Gaza pullout that will boost Israel's security. He must be challenged if he claims to have no partner for peace. Israelis must also come to terms with a Palestinian state that includes sovereignty over most of Jerusalem's Arab areas and the West Bank as well as Gaza to realize peace.
Arafat's exit can be a new beginning, if both sides want it to be.
Palestinians are coming to grips with the realization that Yasser Arafat, the only leader they have known, is passing from the Middle East political scene without achieving his ultimate goal of a separate Palestinian state for his people. To Palestinians the world over, Arafat has always been more than a mere leader. Emotional crowds hail him as"our father." He has been the icon of Palestinian identity, the symbol of a marginalized people's tenacious will to survive, and of their constant yearning for a state they can call their own.
As head of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969, through eight Israeli prime ministers, Arafat marketed the once-obscure Palestinian cause with cunning, violence, terrorism and statesmanship. Historians credit him for rallying his people from near-extinction to near-statehood. But they will also record that Arafat could not say Yes to a Palestinian state in 2000 when he might have. That must now fall to someone more decisive, more forward-looking and more open to compromise.
But Palestinians' next leader will never rival Arafat as a national liberation hero who was also by turns an idealist, a guerrilla, a terrorist, an exile, a president, an autocrat, a patronage dispenser and a prisoner of his foes.
He once held aloft an olive branch - and a pistol - at the United Nations. In 1988, at a podium 2,500 km. away from Jerusalem, he proclaimed a"Palestinian state" from exile. He shared the Nobel peace prize with martyred Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for his part in a 1993 peace that established the Palestinian Authority, for recognition of Israel and a pledge to renounce terror.
"I am a freedom fighter resisting Israeli occupation for the sake of my people," he told the Star in 1988,"so that we can have a place to live freely in our free land." That was at a time when the PLO and its sympathizers had killed some 500 people in the previous 20 years, including the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and air and sea hijackings.
That bloodshed soon became a torrent. Some 5,000 Palestinians have died on Arafat's watch since 1988, battling Israelis or in suicide attacks. So have more than 1,000 Israelis. It has been a criminally futile slaughter.
But Arafat the national hero was also the serial strategic blunderer. He precipitated crises in Jordan in 1970 and in Lebanon in 1982 that saw him driven into exile. He made himself a pariah in 1990 by supporting Iraq's attack on Kuwait. He refused former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak's offer of a state in 2000, while his militants planned suicide bombings.
The seeds of that catastrophe were sowed years earlier. In 1994, Arafat made a triumphal entry into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But his Palestinian Authority would never nurture a stable, demilitarized, Israel-accepting culture. All were Israeli preconditions for ending the occupation. Ever-mistrustful, Arafat refused to groom a successor. Worse, he failed to nurture a spirit of realism, compromise and tolerance in his people. At the same time, Israelis never felt they had a true partner for peace.
When current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wrote off Arafat as a negotiating partner, the world just shrugged. Arafat would spend his final years penned in a crumbling compound.
But he would never forfeit his people's affection.
How can Palestinians honour Arafat? By rallying behind the Palestinian Authority to avert chaos. By quelling anti-Israel violence. And by electing leaders who can deliver the state for which so many suffered.
If Arafat was fated not to die in Palestine, he ought one day to be buried there, a hero to his 9 million people and at peace with his neighbours.
Beginning today, U.S. President George Bush must turn Arafat's departure into a fresh start. Bush, who envisaged a viable Palestinian state by 2005, has just received a renewed mandate to broker the Mideast peace.
New Palestinian leaders must dedicate themselves to the"peace of the brave" that Arafat often invoked, but failed to deliver. They will need political and economic support from the U.S., its allies and Arab states to assert their authority, disarm extremists and quell incitement and terror.
Sharon, too, must reroute his security fence out of Palestinian areas, as he plans a Gaza pullout that will boost Israel's security. He must be challenged if he claims to have no partner for peace. Israelis must also come to terms with a Palestinian state that includes sovereignty over most of Jerusalem's Arab areas and the West Bank as well as Gaza to realize peace.
Arafat's exit can be a new beginning, if both sides want it to be.