Clinton, Netanyahu Must Think That Arafat is a Miracle Worker
By
Charley Reese
of The Sentinel Staff
Published in The Orlando Sentinel, September 21, 1997
A friend and I had a good laugh about how high Yasser Arafat, president of the
Palestinian National Authority, has risen in the esteem of President Clinton and Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Both men think that Arafat is a miracle worker.
Let me explain. Clinton, despite commanding all the resources of a superpower with a
trillion-dollar budget, has been a miserable failure at preventing terrorism. Terrorists
blew up our Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia, the World Trade Center in New York and the
Federal Building in Oklahoma.
Likewise, Netanyahu has been a miserable failure (as were all his predecessors) at
preventing terrorism in Israel. Netanyahu commands the resources of a regional superpower
with a large army, a ruthless secret police, a judiciary that condones torture, nuclear
bombs, the region's biggest and best air force, a stable full of assassins and billions of
dollars (theirs and ours).
Yet, despite all these resources and their own record of failure, both men say that
Arafat can stop terrorism.
Now, poor Arafat spent most of his life as a leader in exile, never sleeping in the
same bed twice for fear of Israeli state-sponsored terrorism. Oops, I forgot. The official
U.S. government definition of state-sponsored terrorism -- sending assassins to murder
political opponents -- doesn't apply to Israel. It only applies to Arab or African
countries and Iran. Forgive me. The double and triple standards the U.S. government
employs to excuse Israel's inexcusable behavior are complicated, and I've temporarily
misplaced my chart of hypocrisies.
Nevertheless, for years, the peace process was never started, because, even though
Arafat wanted to talk peace, Israel wouldn't talk to him and had also instructed the
United States not to talk to him.
Now Arafat sits in Gaza, where the unemployment rate is 50 percent thanks to Israeli
policies, where the poverty is unbelievable. He has a force of 30,000 police officers and
nothing else. He has a meager budget of a few million dollars. He has jurisdiction over
only 5 percent of the Occupied Territories and over 0 percent of Israel.
Yet, Clinton and Netanyahu both seem to think that Arafat could succeed where they have
failed and not only stop terrorism in the 5 percent of the territory he controls but also
in all of the territory he doesn't control and where he has no jurisdiction and no
personnel.
Now, you see what I mean when I say that they must think that Arafat can work miracles.
If Netanyahu thinks that Arafat would be so successful with his meager resources at what
Netanyahu, with lots of resources, has failed at, then perhaps he ought to grant Arafat
Israeli citizenship and urge him to run for prime minister. If he believes that Arafat can
work miracles with no resources and no jurisdiction, then imagine what Arafat could
accomplish if he had the resources and jurisdiction that Netanyahu has.
Only in these decadent days of dying empires could tragedy be turned into a farce by
political leaders who are so long used to lying that they cannot even see how absurd their
own statements are. How else can returning 5 percent of land stolen at gunpoint from
Palestinians be hailed as ``making concessions for peace''? How else can Israel launch
wars, seize and confiscate other people's territory, and convince Americans it -- not
those it invaded -- is the victim?
The truth is the Palestinians are the victims, and what they need is justice. They,
like our American forefathers, are striving for their freedom -- the freedom to live in
their own land where they were born, under their own government and their own flag. Only
justice will produce peace and security.
(c) 1997 Orlando Sentinel Online
