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Palestinian Arabs

Arafat ?puzzled? he?s not seen as peace partner


By Ryan Jones
June 18, 2004

Yasser Arafat, the most prolific killer of Jews since Adolf Hitler, said this week he was “puzzled” the Israeli government does not view him as an honest peace partner.

In an interview with Ha’aretz Tuesday, Arafat noted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon himself had made numerous overtures to the PLO chief via his son, Omri Sharon.

As it has done in the past, the extreme leftist daily newspaper painted the unrepentant terror chief as a man in search of peace with the Jewish state.

But just last month, as the Palestinian Arabs marked the “catastrophe” of Israel’s prophesied rebirth, Arafat called on those under the boot of his regime to “terrorize your enemy, the enemy of Allah.”

For more than a decade, Arafat’s Palestinian Authority has refused to honor its contractual obligation to disarm and dismantle recognized terrorist organizations. This has prompted Jerusalem and Washington to label him an “obstacle to peace.”

Puzzling concept

Yasser Arafat is “puzzled” that after decades of murdering Jews and failing to honor his signed agreements with Israel, the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not view him as a true peace partner.

During an interview with the extreme leftist daily newspaper, Ha’aretz , on Tuesday, Arafat was told the bulk of the Israeli public was convinced a peace deal could not be reached with him.

If that were true, then why had Sharon, via his son Omri, made numerous overtures to him, Arafat asked?

Arafat made clear that at the end of the day, it was he who had signed the Oslo Accords and negotiated at Camp David, meaning, “as long as he lived, he was he only man to do business with,” Ha’aretz reported.

Ready for peace?

Arafat told his interviewers he was ready to compromise with Israel, and noted his Palestinian Authority had publicly accepted every peace proposal put forward over the past 15 years. The fact the PA has failed to actually implement those agreements was not brought up.

But Arafat believes it is Israel that must come up to him, on his land, and sue for peaceful relations.

He explained to Ha’aretz that while the Arabs and Jews are cousins due to their common ancestor, Abraham, and therefore both original residents of this land, the Jews under Jacob had chosen to go live in Egypt, while the descendents of Ishmael had remained.

“We became citizens. We stayed here and you went…to Egypt!”

As such, Arafat insisted Israel must give the “Palestinians” 100% of what they are asking for, and only vaguely indicated he would be willing to negotiate the exact number of Arab “refugees” the Jewish state would be required to absorb.

Israeli and Western security and diplomatic officials, both past and present, have warned that a return to its 1967 borders would present an existential threat to the Jewish state, as would allowing the immigration of millions of so-called refugees.

Until Israel is prepared to fully capitulate, Arafat can be expected to continue inciting his people to violence against the Jews, as he did last month when he called on the “Palestinians” to “terrorize your enemy” during a speech marking the “catastrophe” of Israel’s prophesied rebirth.

Political agenda

Ha’aretz has in the past made common practice of creating news by carefully skewing the questions its reporters ask.

Dr. Aaron Lerner of Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA) pointed out Friday that Arafat’s Ha’aretz interviewers purposefully avoided asking the PLO chief the really tough questions so as to preserve their desired headline.

For instance, during the interview the PLO chief said Jews would be most welcome to visit sites holy to them even if they were transferred to full “Palestinian” control. This statement was utilized by Ha’aretz to headline the corresponding news article.

But, Lerner explains, the interviewers (both Jews) “know that the issue has never been if Jews can ‘visit’ such locations, but rather if Jews would be permitted to pray there if the location is under Palestinian control.”

And “Arafat's appointed ‘Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine’ has repeatedly stated that it would be blasphemy to permit a Jew to pray in a mosque,” Lerner writes. The Muslims refer to all Jewish holy sites as “mosques” in an effort to erase their connection to the people of Israel.

The Ha’aretz reporters “don’t follow up on this,” noted Lerner.

The reporters also spend considerable time describing the ruinous and humiliating state of Arafat’s Muqata confines in Ramallah, but fail to explain that the compound had only come under Israeli siege because of Arafat’s harboring of known and wanted terrorists there.

They also omit the fact that Arafat is free to leave Ramallah at any time. He has refrained from doing so due to an assumption Israel would not allow him to return.

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