Moderate Myths

Caroline Gluck on the fallacy of Arafat’s death being an opportunity for kick starting the "peace process”:

And here we get to the crux of the issue. Arafat's men – from Qurei to Abbas to Farouk Kadoumi and even to MK Ahmed Tibi – owe their positions in the world to the fact that they were integral parts of Arafat's regime. It wasn't just Arafat that Israel insanely brought into Judea, Samaria and Gaza (and Israel) in 1994, but the entire terrorist and corrupt regime of the PLO. Though Arafat's death has finally been announced, his regime will remain.

In their usual vacuous and ridiculous style, Israeli pundits, experts and politicians have been mouthing off over the past week about Israel using the opportunity of Arafat's death to strengthen the "reformist" elements in the PA. Fat chance of that working. There are no "reformist" elements in the PA. And anyone inside the PA who would dare speak of making changes to the way things are done would immediately be attacked, if not murdered, for daring to question Arafat's legacy.

We have only to look to Nabil Amr, the PLO member and representative of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who dared to attack Arafat in July for the PLO's corruption. He got shot in the leg and is now getting fitted for a prosthetic limb in Europe. And this happened while Arafat was still in charge. Imagine what will happen now that the "Martyred President" has finally been declared dead.

If Abbas or Qurei – Jerusalem and Washington's favorites to inherit Arafat's helm – try to cut a deal with Israel, or in any way take action against the PLO militias or Hamas or Fatah or Islamic Jihad, they will be immediately murdered. Not, of course, that they would try to take any action to rein in or disarm the terrorists. They side with the terrorists, because they are and always have been terrorists themselves. This is how they got their positions and retained them all these years at Arafat's side.

The point is that without a regime change in Palestinian society, Arafat's legacy will survive. And, as Suha's screeching statement makes clear, that legacy is both criminal and terrorist.

In a more enlightened world; Canada, US, EU, UN and a whole host- of others would not be bankrolling the aspirations of thugs and/or terrorists but sponsoring Teams of Psychiatrists for immediate deployment in the West Bank and Gaza.