Well, if you believe the news reports, Arafat has finally gone to that terrorist enclave in Hell. This time we suggest putting a large dead pig over his grave to make sure he can't sit up & reach out for his good old trusty AK-47 or his hidden Swiss bank accounts.
Make no mistake - Arafat was a terrorist. The Palestinian people, through their failing or for want of a real peace-making leader, crowned him as their leader & raised him up to icon status. Which is ironic, because Arafat was no friend to his people. The untold millions of dollars he received from Arab countries & other sources was spent buying arms, paying off opposition groups & others, & putting much of it into his personal bank accounts. His wife lives in Paris with a $1.3 million a year allowance.
Meanwhile, the Palestinians live in poverty & squalor. No health care programs for them, no unemployment relief for them, no decent housing for them. Ask Arafat why the money was not better spent for them.
Though a terrorist, Arafat became a "world leader', "a statesman". Yet as successful a terrorist as he was, he was a dismal failure as a leader when Israel offered him 95% of what he demanded. Rather then take Israel's offer, which would have given the Palestinians their first real hope for statehood & a better life, he turned it down. It was all or nothing for him. And so the Palestinians are the worse for it. He failed them. Or betrayed them. A free Palestine without an Arafat to control may have been too much for him to accept.
And so now the wailing, the chanting, the marches & quite probably the riots & bombings will all begin. Out of it will hopefully come some Palestinian leaders who will open up real dialogue with Israel & stop the homicide bombings from the likes of Hamas. Hopefully they will search for peace rather than search for Arafat's bank accounts. Meanwhile, Yassir, I hope the 76 virgins you find in Hell are all gay.
....from sea to shining sea