As a caller to a talk show said this morning, the reason why Arafat took so long to die in that Paris hospital was becuase The Devil had to spend some extra time stoking the fires of Hell to welcome him.

ARAFAT DEAD!

Of course there are those like Jacque Chirac who hail Arafat as a "Man of Courage". And after all, he did win a Nobel Peace Prize.

Others will have more time to link to the list of his hideous crimes against humanity. I will just speak to my general viewpoint.

I grew up in the 1970's and Yasser Arafat has always been THE symbol of anti-Zionism and the denial of the right of my people to a place to live in the world. It was barely a generation after the Holocaust when he was calling for all the remaining Jews to be driven into the sea and he began his history of killing civilians all over Israel and Europe to make his point heard. Airline hijackings are a plague to be feared principally because of this man who pretty much invented the practice. Think of all hundreds of billions of dollars spent on airport security around the world - it is principally becuase of this one man's "vision" for his people which made hijackings an acceptable stage in negotiations. Before the rise of global militant Islam in the 1990's, the words "PLO" and "terrorists" were inseparable.

My sincere hope is that now that this symbol of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism has passed, there will be less of a unifying force for this kind of sentiment and therefore a decreasing motivation to use violence and hatred as a means to achieving an end.

I sincerely hope that the Paelstinian people can overcome the years of hatred and indoctrination and rise up to become a respected, free and peaceful people.

Most people hope that when they leave this world, they leave it a better place than when they found it. Here then, is the legacy of Yasser Arafat.











I finally urge you to link to the hundreds of pictures of Palestinian children at Little Green Footballs. This is Yasser Arafat's legacy.