Not long ago, Israeli Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Yasser Arafat should be treated like Saddam Hussein. Speaking in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said the guiding principle of both Israel, in its war against Palestinian terror, and the United States in its campaign against Iraq, is "no tolerance for terror and no tolerance for regimes that spawn terror."
Netanyahu stated, "I think what applies in Iraq should apply here as well. What applies in Iraq, that a brutal terrorist should be removed and democratization should be introduced, should be applied in the Palestinian dictatorship as well." Netanyahu said that in order to begin a process of democratization in regimes that foster terrorism, as was done in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, the existing terror-supporting regimes must be totally defeated and tossed out. It does no good, he said, to replace one dictator with another.
But, in response to Netanyahu's earlier call for Arafat's expulsion in November 2002, Arafat retorted, "No one has the right to deport me from my homeland." I take issue with the last two words, ?my homeland?. As I recall, his official biography (at the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates website) states he was born in Cairo, so he's an Egyptian like his father, not a 'Palestinian'. But, regarding the first part of his statement I couldn't agree with him more.
What?s all the debate in Israel about expelling or not expelling Arafat? Have we all gone mad? How will expelling him solve the problem (him)?
As I recall, Arafat was in ?exile? until 1993, where he was able to lead a terrorist organization - the PLO - and plan attacks on Jews, Israelis, and others, around the world and in Israel. Don't forget, during his ?exile? he managed to ally himself with Syria and its occupation of Lebanon - which continues - creating a PLO state-within-a-state, brutalizing Lebanese along the way. He has publicly admitted, in the past, to involvement in the killing of two American diplomats in Sudan in 1973. He also allied himself with Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War of 1991. Oh yes, he also managed to hobnob with the rich, famous, and powerful, lobbying for a ?Palestinian State? in his spare time. Can someone tell me what expelling Arafat will accomplish, other than turning him into a ?victim? again? A role he plays so well.
The debate shouldn?t be about expelling or not expelling Arafat - either way we?re still stuck with his ?leadership? as ?President? of the Palestinians. The Palestinians all say so.
Recently, the Palestinian Legislative Council - under pressure from America and to a lesser extent the EU - grudgingly appointed Mahmoud Abbas - better known by his underground guerrilla code-name ?Abu Mazen? - prime minister in the Palestinian Authority. Hand-picked by Yasser Arafat, Abu Mazen is a founding member of Arafat's Fatah and has been Arafat's second-in-command for almost five decades. Do you think that Arafat will really be ?retired??
That?s Abu Mazen, Holocaust denier. He received his PhD in history at Moscow Oriental College. His doctoral dissertation claimed the number of Jewish victims in the Holocaust was less than one million, rather than six million, and that they were victims of a joint Zionist-Nazi plot. In 1983, he published his dissertation as a book, The Other Side: Secret Relations Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement. In 1984, he added an introduction to this book in which he raised doubts that gas chambers were used by the Nazis for the murder of Jews in World War II.
That?s Abu Mazen financier of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. According to the mastermind of the Munich attack, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh - Abu Daoud - Abu Mazen provided the funds to carry out the Black September (a Fatah group) terrorist attack. Daoud made that charge in his 1999 French language memoir, Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich, and again in an August 2002 interview with Don Yaeger of Sports Illustrated magazine.
That?s Abu Mazen, who in a March 3, 2003 interview with the Arabic language a-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper - just before being appointed prime minister - called for the killing of Jewish ?settlers?. Four days later, terrorists murdered Rabbi Eli and Dina Horowitz in Kiryat Arba. Recently, Mrs. Bernice Wolf, Dina Horowitz's mother, filed a complaint with the Israeli police against Abu Mazen, charging him with incitement to murder.
To prove his credentials as a ?moderate? and democrat, who didn't want to exclude any group from political involvement in the PA, prime minister-designate Abu Mazen called on the terrorist group Hamas to join the Authority. He offered two cabinet positions to them, including control of the Ministry of Education, meaning that Hamas would have controlled what is taught to all the children in Palestinian schools. Maybe they would have started teaching Suicide-Bombing 101? They turned him down. So much for those who thought ?moderate? Prime Minister Abu Mazen would bring an end to incitement against Israel. So much for a changing of the guard at ?Terror Central?.
The real debate that has yet to begin in earnest, in Israel, is over trying Yasser Arafat for crimes against humanity; i.e., the Jewish People, Lebanese, Americans, and others. And how about trying Abu Mazen, too?
I believe an Eichmann-like War Crimes Trial in Israel - as was done with captured Nazi Adolph Eichmann in 1961 - would educate a generation of Israelis and others world-wide who might still think of Arafat as a ?peacenik? - he won the Nobel Peace Prize didn't he? - about his murderous criminal activities. It would educate people about the real Abu Mazen, terrorist leader, not ?moderate?, as some would have us believe. It would hold Arafat responsible as leader of the Palestinians, for the almost 800 murdered and over 5,000 injured since the Oslo War began, in September 2000. It would teach the world how to deal lawfully with terrorism and how not to appease it.
Some might say that Arafat, as head of state, is immune to prosecution. Well, guess what? He?s not the head of any state, yet, and neither is Abu Mazen. You see, Netanyahu only got it partially right. When referring to the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Netanyahu - and those who called for Saddam Hussein's expulsion before the war - forgot that those wartime leaders weren't ?exiled? or ?retired?, as some would have us do with Arafat; they were tried for war crimes. Many were hanged.
At an Arab League meeting before the war in Iraq started, the United Arab Emirates' president called on Saddam to leave Iraq in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Saudi Arabia also proposed exile for him. Why should Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein, with personal fortunes estimated by Forbes at $300 million and $2 billion respectively, be sent into ?exile?, immune from prosecution? They should be brought to justice for their crimes, that is, if Saddam is still alive. So should other dictators in the region, such as Bashar Assad of Syria, whose brutal regime still occupies Lebanon.
Recently, victims of Arafat's terror have filed claims against him and the Palestinian Authority in courts in America, Belgium, Paris, and Tel Aviv. But why should it be up to individuals to chase after him? Why doesn't the Israeli government itself take the lead? The Israeli civil rights group Shurat HaDin has recently announced a campaign to convince US and German law enforcement agencies to open an investigation into the role of newly-appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu Mazen in the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Again, I ask, why doesn't the Israeli government itself take the lead?
The real debate over what to do with Yasser Arafat and Abu Mazen hasn?t yet begun in Israel. Exiling them, or whitewashing their past won?t do. The only decent question for decent people to debate is whether they should receive life in prison, or the death penalty?
If there?s a referendum, you know my vote.
-------------------------------------------------
Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at http://www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko.
(c) 2003/5763 Pasko
Netanyahu stated, "I think what applies in Iraq should apply here as well. What applies in Iraq, that a brutal terrorist should be removed and democratization should be introduced, should be applied in the Palestinian dictatorship as well." Netanyahu said that in order to begin a process of democratization in regimes that foster terrorism, as was done in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, the existing terror-supporting regimes must be totally defeated and tossed out. It does no good, he said, to replace one dictator with another.
But, in response to Netanyahu's earlier call for Arafat's expulsion in November 2002, Arafat retorted, "No one has the right to deport me from my homeland." I take issue with the last two words, ?my homeland?. As I recall, his official biography (at the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates website) states he was born in Cairo, so he's an Egyptian like his father, not a 'Palestinian'. But, regarding the first part of his statement I couldn't agree with him more.
What?s all the debate in Israel about expelling or not expelling Arafat? Have we all gone mad? How will expelling him solve the problem (him)?
As I recall, Arafat was in ?exile? until 1993, where he was able to lead a terrorist organization - the PLO - and plan attacks on Jews, Israelis, and others, around the world and in Israel. Don't forget, during his ?exile? he managed to ally himself with Syria and its occupation of Lebanon - which continues - creating a PLO state-within-a-state, brutalizing Lebanese along the way. He has publicly admitted, in the past, to involvement in the killing of two American diplomats in Sudan in 1973. He also allied himself with Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War of 1991. Oh yes, he also managed to hobnob with the rich, famous, and powerful, lobbying for a ?Palestinian State? in his spare time. Can someone tell me what expelling Arafat will accomplish, other than turning him into a ?victim? again? A role he plays so well.
The debate shouldn?t be about expelling or not expelling Arafat - either way we?re still stuck with his ?leadership? as ?President? of the Palestinians. The Palestinians all say so.
Recently, the Palestinian Legislative Council - under pressure from America and to a lesser extent the EU - grudgingly appointed Mahmoud Abbas - better known by his underground guerrilla code-name ?Abu Mazen? - prime minister in the Palestinian Authority. Hand-picked by Yasser Arafat, Abu Mazen is a founding member of Arafat's Fatah and has been Arafat's second-in-command for almost five decades. Do you think that Arafat will really be ?retired??
That?s Abu Mazen, Holocaust denier. He received his PhD in history at Moscow Oriental College. His doctoral dissertation claimed the number of Jewish victims in the Holocaust was less than one million, rather than six million, and that they were victims of a joint Zionist-Nazi plot. In 1983, he published his dissertation as a book, The Other Side: Secret Relations Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement. In 1984, he added an introduction to this book in which he raised doubts that gas chambers were used by the Nazis for the murder of Jews in World War II.
That?s Abu Mazen financier of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. According to the mastermind of the Munich attack, Mohammed Daoud Oudeh - Abu Daoud - Abu Mazen provided the funds to carry out the Black September (a Fatah group) terrorist attack. Daoud made that charge in his 1999 French language memoir, Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich, and again in an August 2002 interview with Don Yaeger of Sports Illustrated magazine.
That?s Abu Mazen, who in a March 3, 2003 interview with the Arabic language a-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper - just before being appointed prime minister - called for the killing of Jewish ?settlers?. Four days later, terrorists murdered Rabbi Eli and Dina Horowitz in Kiryat Arba. Recently, Mrs. Bernice Wolf, Dina Horowitz's mother, filed a complaint with the Israeli police against Abu Mazen, charging him with incitement to murder.
To prove his credentials as a ?moderate? and democrat, who didn't want to exclude any group from political involvement in the PA, prime minister-designate Abu Mazen called on the terrorist group Hamas to join the Authority. He offered two cabinet positions to them, including control of the Ministry of Education, meaning that Hamas would have controlled what is taught to all the children in Palestinian schools. Maybe they would have started teaching Suicide-Bombing 101? They turned him down. So much for those who thought ?moderate? Prime Minister Abu Mazen would bring an end to incitement against Israel. So much for a changing of the guard at ?Terror Central?.
The real debate that has yet to begin in earnest, in Israel, is over trying Yasser Arafat for crimes against humanity; i.e., the Jewish People, Lebanese, Americans, and others. And how about trying Abu Mazen, too?
I believe an Eichmann-like War Crimes Trial in Israel - as was done with captured Nazi Adolph Eichmann in 1961 - would educate a generation of Israelis and others world-wide who might still think of Arafat as a ?peacenik? - he won the Nobel Peace Prize didn't he? - about his murderous criminal activities. It would educate people about the real Abu Mazen, terrorist leader, not ?moderate?, as some would have us believe. It would hold Arafat responsible as leader of the Palestinians, for the almost 800 murdered and over 5,000 injured since the Oslo War began, in September 2000. It would teach the world how to deal lawfully with terrorism and how not to appease it.
Some might say that Arafat, as head of state, is immune to prosecution. Well, guess what? He?s not the head of any state, yet, and neither is Abu Mazen. You see, Netanyahu only got it partially right. When referring to the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Netanyahu - and those who called for Saddam Hussein's expulsion before the war - forgot that those wartime leaders weren't ?exiled? or ?retired?, as some would have us do with Arafat; they were tried for war crimes. Many were hanged.
At an Arab League meeting before the war in Iraq started, the United Arab Emirates' president called on Saddam to leave Iraq in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Saudi Arabia also proposed exile for him. Why should Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein, with personal fortunes estimated by Forbes at $300 million and $2 billion respectively, be sent into ?exile?, immune from prosecution? They should be brought to justice for their crimes, that is, if Saddam is still alive. So should other dictators in the region, such as Bashar Assad of Syria, whose brutal regime still occupies Lebanon.
Recently, victims of Arafat's terror have filed claims against him and the Palestinian Authority in courts in America, Belgium, Paris, and Tel Aviv. But why should it be up to individuals to chase after him? Why doesn't the Israeli government itself take the lead? The Israeli civil rights group Shurat HaDin has recently announced a campaign to convince US and German law enforcement agencies to open an investigation into the role of newly-appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu Mazen in the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Again, I ask, why doesn't the Israeli government itself take the lead?
The real debate over what to do with Yasser Arafat and Abu Mazen hasn?t yet begun in Israel. Exiling them, or whitewashing their past won?t do. The only decent question for decent people to debate is whether they should receive life in prison, or the death penalty?
If there?s a referendum, you know my vote.
-------------------------------------------------
Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master's Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at http://www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko.
(c) 2003/5763 Pasko