So Yasser Arafat is now dead. It's about time.
The headline at CNN.com reads, "Palestinian leader Arafat dies at 75," and the first paragraph of the story reads, "Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, 75, the leader who passionately sought a homeland for his people but was seen by many Israelis as a ruthless terrorist and a roadblock to peace, died early Thursday in Paris."
The BBC News headline at bbc.co.uk: "Veteran leader Yasser Arafat dies."
ABC News Online: "Yasser Arafat, the unchallenged Palestinian leader who fought for decades for statehood but was later seen by many as an obstacle to his people's dreams, has died."
And how does the New York Times online find the words? "Yasir Arafat, the Father and Leader Of Palestinian Nationalism, Dies at 75."
Ladies and gentlemen, these are major news-reporting organs in the two primary English-speaking nations, and what words are chosen to describe Arafat? No, we don't find "thug," "murderer," or "terrorist." Nope. What we have instead is "Leader." "President." "Veteran leader." "Father."
I'll grant you, Arafat was influential: if you have traveled by commercial air at any time since 1968, then your life has been influenced by him. After all, he was the architect of modern hijacking and terrorism. A few weeks ago, when he was flown to Paris, a decades-old observation by William F. Buckley, Jr. came to my mind: that it must be nice indeed to be able to board a passenger plane and know that it won't be blown up or hijacked to Algeria or Tunisia.
Many people in America wonder why Arafat is so loved and admired in the Arab world. A bit of time spent in that world helps explain some of it: in my view, they simply don't know as much about him as we do here. The press in those countries is very tightly controlled, so while there may be religious and cultural prejudice in Arafat's favor, there's also the fact of censorship. One Ramadan in Egypt found me discussing various Islamic and cultural issues with my students, all of whom were educated men (engineers, in fact). They were of course pro-PLO and pro-Arafat. When I mentioned Leon Klinghoffer and the Achille Lauro incident, there was no response from any of the men in the room: they had never heard of it.
On second thought, let's allow Arafat that title "Leader." Hitler used it, too, and he behaved much the same way, and did just about as much good.
Posted by Craig Ceely at November 10, 2004 11:00 PM