Some Palestinians seem to think that Israel should join them in mourning the death of Yasir Arafat. ABC News reported today that when Arafat’s death was announced prematurely, ““… several dozen Jewish demonstrators gathered in a downtown Jerusalem square to celebrate, singing, dancing, distributing sweets and declaring that one of the greatest enemies of the Jewish people was “on his way to hell.”” Responding to the celebrations, Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian lawmaker, told CNN, “I hope the Israeli public will show sensitivities. I've seen some Israelis dancing in the streets, hugging each other… I think it's alien… I cannot describe my feelings. It's heartbreaking to see Israelis hugging and kissing in such circumstances.”
This is rather like telling Americans not to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden.
Erekat is obviously a prat, but one wonders if he remembers the Palestinians who took great pains to demonstrate their sensitivity by publicly celebrating the murder of thousands of civilians by Muslims who flew hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers on November 11, 2001? Is he aware of the posters, music, and street rallies celebrating successful terrorist strikes against Israel that dominate Palestinian public life? Surely he is not oblivious to the hundreds of Israeli deaths attributable to organizations funded and directed by Yasser Arafat.
There are many reasons to celebrate Arafat’s death. He is a bigot, a racist, a mass-murderer, and a terrorist with the distinction of having invented airplane hijacking. He is insatiable in his love of money- stealing more than $300 million from the impoverished Palestinian people, and he is shameless in his lust for power- rigging his own election and undermining every effort at constitutional power sharing. The biggest reason of all for celebrating his death is that Arafat is the single biggest roadblock, both to peace in the Holy Land, and to an autonomous state for the Palestinian people.
There is only one reason not to celebrate Arafat’s death; doing so lowers the celebrant to the despicable level of animalistic brutality at which Arafat has lived most of his life, and to which he has dragged much of Palestinian society.
Posted by publius at November 5, 2004 02:12 PM