Mood: Unknown
Music: None...my iPod's battery died on the way to work.
Normally, I tend to stay away from really controversial topics on my blog...not because I don't have opinions, as most of you know, but because I generally don't believe on forcing my views on difficult topics onto other people. Must be my libertarian leanings. I'd rather not bring up uncomfortable topics in most cases, even on my blog.
Well, today, I'm going to bring up the death of Yassir Arafat. Bear with me on this...because being Jewish, there's a fair amount that's running through my mind at the moment.
The first thing I thought of when I saw he had died was that he had failed. Failed at what? Not what you think I'm thinking. He didn't fail in his attempt to create a Palestinian state, nor did he necessarily fail in his stated attempt to destroy the state of Israel. I believe that he failed in trying to close the Pandora's box he opened in the Sixties.
Terrorism is first noted as being in use in 1795, and can be defined as "...the systematic use of terror or unpredictable violence against governments, publics, or individuals to attain a political objective. Terrorism has been used by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and ethnic groups, by revolutionaries, and by the armies and secret police of governments themselves."
Terrorism is defined in the U.S. by the Code of Federal Regulations as: "...the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)
So, terrorism is not a new phenomenon. The Greek historian Xenophon wrote about the effectiveness of psychological warfare against enemy populations. The Spanish Inquisition was largely an exercise in terrorism. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in opposition to Reconstruction. Anarchists in the early 20th century used terror, obviously. And the Vietnam War was nothing, if not an exercise in terrorism in both directions.
Yassir Arafat opened that can of worms against Israel.
I honestly believe that, at the end, Arafat was sorry he started it. I believe that as he got older, and saw fundamentalist Islam pick up the banner of terrorism, that he lost control of using terrorism as a weapon to gain political currency. He no longer could control the splinter groups and factions. And he saw his ability to affect the founding of Palestinian state grow weaker as, each time either side made overtures, a splinter group would detonate a bomb or do something to force Israel to react with a stone wall.
Israel is not innocent in any of this. At least, not any more. As I have said a million times, if you give rifles to 18 year olds, raise them in an environment where friends have been maimed and killed just for shopping or riding a bus, make them listen to propaganda telling them that all Palestinians want are the death of Israel, and put them in situations where bombs are going off and people are throwing rocks...someone's gonna get hurt.
Conversely, teaching children that the government under which you live hates you, that they want you dead, that the soldiers around you want to kill you, and you give them rocks and bottles filled with gasoline, they're not going to stand around idly watching friends die.
Arafat could have stopped this 30 years ago. He could have prevented a lot of this. I think he knew it. I think he knew that this year. I believe he's been trying for years to get Palestinians to stop killing Israelis...that bargaining or negotiating for SOMETHING was better than having nothing...and having your life's work end up being nothing.
On the death of Arafat, some will hail him as a great leader...as one who would not back down in the face of Israeli guns and occupation. Some will view him as the reason why the Middle East is as unstable as it is. There is truth in both sides. Some will view him as a martyr. Some papers are already blaming his death on the conditions he was "forced to live under" in his compound...implicitly blaming the Israelis.
For a very long time, before Osama Bin Laden, Yassir Arafat was the face of terror, the face of Muslim hate against American imperialism. Now, there is no clear target...no clear focus. Bin Laden is off hiding somewhere...but give it up for Arafat...he was usually in plain sight, daring the Israelis to do something. In Israel now, the terrorism is spontaneous and grassroots. People are taking it upon themselves to be terrorists. Because Yassir Arafat taught them that it was an acceptable way to protest.
Still, until the end, he was trying to make a difference...trying to make peace, even as he, by his very existence, condoned the use of terror to found the Palestinian state.
Now that he's dead, however, who will attempt to reign in these people who think that walking into a crowded restaurant wearing a C4 overcoat is the way to get Israel to pick up and go away? Who will prevent teenagers from giving even made-up excuses to these 18 year olds with American-made rifles?
He failed. He did not stabilize the region, he did not get his Palestinian state, and he did not regain control of this movement.
I am not glad he is dead. I am afraid now that he is dead. No one's driving the train any more.
But for some reason, I still vaguely feel like he finally will get what's coming to him. I hope, for his sake, that Allah truly is merciful.