Jewish World Review Nov. 21, 2000 / 23 Mar-Cheshvan 5761
Take back Arafat's Peace Prize
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
I DEMAND a recount! And not just in Florida! I want a
recount of the 1994 Oslo poll that voted Yasser Arafat a
Nobel Peace Prize.
Arafat's co-winners of the prestigious prize, Shimon
Peres and the late Yitzhak Rabin, proved themselves more than worthy.
But if anyone has proven himself undeserving, it's the
aging terrorist redux, who is doing more to destroy
peace than anyone else in the Middle East.
Just consider the evidence: Despite his promise to end
the bloodshed sweeping the Holy Land, Arafat remains
ominously silent. Not a single call to his people to
stop the violence, which surged again yesterday. Not a
single broadcast on Arafat-controlled radio or
television urging Palestinians to refrain from attacking
Israeli troops and civilians and to limit themselves to
peaceful protests. Instead, the Palestinian leader has
stepped up his rhetoric, calling for "the total
liberation of Jerusalem," an old Arab buzz phrase for
Israel's destruction.
Arafat's lieutenants who act on his commands have
been worse. Imad al Falouji, his minister of
communications, boasts, "We are proud to carry out
terrorist attacks against our enemy, against Israel."
Marwan Bargouti, the fiery West Bank leader of Arafat's
Al Fatah faction and the man behind the masked units and
the armed attacks on Israelis, calls for "tightening the
noose."
What's more, Arafat has not only released some of the
worst Islamic terrorists from prison, he has allowed
their leaders to go on TV and radio and openly call for
attacks on Israeli civilians.
His schools still teach hatred of Israel, and his
appointed Islamic leaders still preach "the eradication
of Jews from all of Palestine," meaning Israel.
Let's get one thing clear: Arafat is a dictator. He
controls the Palestinian Authority, the media, the armed
Palestinian units, the whole pita and falafel. If he
wanted to stop the demonstrations, the stone-throwing
and the screams for blood, he could do it quickly.
Some people claim it's too late, that he tried to stop
some armed exchanges just this week but failed. I don't
believe it's out of his control. But if it is, it is his
fault. And it stems from his stubborn refusal in
September to accept the generous peace plan that
President Clinton brokered at Camp David: sovereignty
and a sharing of Jerusalem deals that the Palestinians
haven't seen on the table since 1947.
Instead of the "peace of the brave" a phrase the
Palestinian leader used to bandy about Arafat has
chosen a war of the cowardly: sending children out to
fight.
The problem is still the basic one: Arafat, who already
controls the territory in which some 90% of West Bank
and Gaza Palestinians live, doesn't want a peacefully
negotiated settlement, because he doesn't really accept
Israel's right to exist within peaceful boundaries. And,
like the rest of the Arab world, he hasn't given up
using Israel as the whipping boy for his own despotism
and corruption.
Now he is blaming Clinton for the crisis and he's been
joined by some misguided mavens in the West. As they
tell it, it's Clinton's fault because his herculean
attempt at peacemaking was "overly ambitious" at
best, "arrogant" at worst. Which means that when Clinton
pushed Arabs and Israelis up against the negotiating
table and said, "Boys, the time has come to reach a
deal," he precipitated the bloodletting.
What utter nonsense! No one, including Jimmy Carter, has
devoted more effort and realized more success in the
region, despite the current problems, than Clinton.
So I have another suggestion: Let whoever finally wins
the presidential election appoint Bill Clinton as our
full-time Mideast peacemaker. Then we lift Arafat's
Nobel Prize until he stops the violence and gets on with
By Richard Z. Chesnoff
JWR contributor and veteran journalist
Richard Z. Chesnoff is a senior correspondent at US News
And World Report and a columnist at the NY Daily News. His latest book is Pack of Thieves: How Hitler & Europe
Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History.
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