Palastinian Leader Yasser Arafat has died early Thursday morning in France, at the age of 75
Top Stories - AP


Palestinian Leader Arafat Dies at 75

11 minutes ago Top Stories - AP


By PAM SAMPSON, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), who triumphantly forced his people's plight into the world spotlight but failed to achieve his lifelong quest for Palestinian statehood, died Thursday at age 75.


AP Photo


AP Photo
Slideshow: Yasser Arafat




He was to the end a man of many mysteries and paradoxes — terrorist, statesman, autocrat and peacemaker.


Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat confirmed to The Associated Press that Arafat had died. The Palestinian leader spent his final days in a coma at a French military hospital outside Paris.


Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Arafat aide, confirmed that Arafat died at 4:30 am Paris time. He spoke to reporters at Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.


Arafat's last days were as murky and dramatic as his life. Flown to France on Oct. 29 after nearly three years of being penned in his West Bank headquarters by Israeli tanks, he initially improved but then sharply deteriorated as rumors swirled about his illness.


Top Palestinian officials flew in to check on their leader while Arafat's 41-year-old wife, Suha, publicly accused them of trying to usurp his powers. Ordinary Palestinians prayed for his well being, but expressed deep frustration over his failure to improve their lives.


Arafat's failure to groom a successor complicated his passing, raising the danger of factional conflict among Palestinians.


A visual constant in his checkered keffiyeh headdress, Arafat kept the Palestinians' cause at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But he fell short of creating a Palestinian state, and, along with other secular Arab leaders of his generation, he saw his influence weakened by the rise of radical Islam in recent years.


Revered by his own people, Arafat was reviled by others. He was accused of secretly fomenting attacks on Israelis while proclaiming brotherhood and claiming to have put terrorism aside. Many Israelis felt the paunchy 5-foot, 2-inch (1.57 meters) Palestinian's real goal remained the destruction of the Jewish state.


Arafat became one of the world's most familiar faces after addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 1974, when he entered the chamber wearing a holster and carrying a sprig. "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun," he said. "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."


Two decades later, he shook hand at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites) on a peace deal that formally recognized Israel's right to exist while granting the Palestinians limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites). The pact led to the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for Arafat, Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.


But the accord quickly unraveled amid mutual suspicions and accusations of treaty violations, and a new round of violence that erupted in the fall of 2000 has killed some 4,000 people, three-quarters of them Palestinian.


The Israeli and U.S. governments said Arafat deserved much of the blame for the derailing of the peace process. Even many of his own people began whispering against Arafat, expressing disgruntlement over corruption, lawlessness and a bad economy in the Palestinian areas.


A resilient survivor of war with Israel, assassination attempts and even a plane crash, Arafat was born Rahman Abdel-Raouf Arafat Al-Qudwa on Aug. 4, 1929, the fifth of seven children of a Palestinian merchant killed in the 1948 war over Israel's creation. There is disagreement whether he was born in Gaza or in Cairo, Egypt.


Educated as an engineer in Egypt, Arafat served in the Egyptian army and then started a contracting firm in Kuwait. It was there that he founded the Fatah (news - web sites) movement, which became the core of the Palestine Liberation Organization (news - web sites).


After the Arabs' humbling defeat by Israel in the six-day war of 1967, the PLO thrust itself on the world's front pages by sending its gunmen out to hijack airplanes, machine gun airports and seize Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics (news - web sites).


"As long as the world saw Palestinians as no more than refugees standing in line for U.N. rations, it was not likely to respect them. Now that the Palestinians carry rifles the situation has changed," Arafat explained.

Rest in peace. You deserve it.

So long terrorist.

They were killed. It was horrible. Is the age group here too young to remember?

This guy was a problem. His death is not a tragedy.

The problem with his death is that we do not know how the Palistinians will react.

I WAS A LITTLE ONE AT THE TIME ALL OF THAT WENT ON, BUT FROM GLOBAL HISTORY CLASSES I BETTER UNDERSTOOD WHAT HE DID.. I AM NOT SORRY AT ALL.. I THOUGHT THAT WAS A BIT IRONIC THAT A TERRORIST COULD GET A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. HMMM COULD BE A QUESTION FOR THE AGES...

"AAhhh yes I remember it well"... was in highschool at the time.Remember thinking the world was a cruel and dangerous place.Ironically...he now has to answer to God.

Various news and op/ed pieces found at the [url=http://www.cursor.org/]Cursor[/url] website, text theirs:

[url=http://www.csmonitor.com/earlyed/early_world111004.htm]'Arafat's Legacy'[/url] The Christian Science Monitor quotes Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery as saying, "Who cared about the Palestinians before him?" More at [url=http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml]Electronic Intifada[/url].

In an editorial penned before [url=http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?c=news_photos&p=Arafat]Arafat's death[/url], Ramzy Baroud wrote that while "the absence of Arafat, even as a living symbol, is a matter of great consequence ... we must not indulge in misrepresenting the Palestinian struggle by [url=http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20041107044228831]reducing it to the legacy of one man[/url].

A 2003 art exhibit titled "[url=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q="Guess+Who+Died"+Arafat&btnG=Google+Search]Guess Who Died[/url]" examined Israel's [url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0910/p06s01-wome.html]obsession[/url] with Arafat.

BTW haven't read them, this is just a raw-info-link-post.

Yasser Arafat was a pawn for all the rich oil countries like the U.A.E. and Bahrain who did not want to get their hands dirty carrying out their avowed mission to destroy Israel. Where did you think Arafat's money came from to wage war against Israel? And then he got "smart" and started pocketing the money. I'll bet the period when he was awarded the Nobel peace prize was the same time that he was building his corrupt little empire.

The world is a safer place without this rodent.

Burn in hell Arafat.

Please tell me that just one of the people taking such glee in Yasser Arafat's death is a self-professed Christian who voted for bush on "moral values".

Although I take no pleasure in the death of anyone I honestly can say I will not shed any tears. It would be nice however if Isreal would back down and allow him to be buried in Jerusalem I think it might help with peace between those two nations.

That God most of us reading this are Christians, not adherents to that Religion of Hate that Arafat believed in.

I voted for Kerry. I am a Christian.

Arafat was a terrorist. He chose skyjacking and killing hostages as his methods to further his cause. He could have obtained success through diplomacy and he backed out. He had his chance. He chose killing rather than peace. I can't feel any admiration or warmth towards the man.

I agree with you often Gio but this time I can't. Burying Arafat in Jerusalem would be like letting Bin Laden live to 75 and burying him in Manhatten.

His death doesn't guaranty any improvement to the situation. But his life proved to be very little value to the peace process.

My feelings exactly!

I boted for Bush, but not based on his Christianity or moral based right wing conservatism. But, I am glad tha Arafat is gone. I DO remember what a brute he was...he was, for me at least in my memory the first person I defined as a "terrorist". He was a greedy man who in the end, being the "brute" he was lloked meek and weak as the took him from his compound to be transportd to Paris. he blew kisses to the crowd, the people who "loved" him, but he seemed to be a little off...almost like a dementia on his face...he was very ill, yet smiling like a child....he is gone. If Israel DID let him be buried in Jerusalem, it is said that the Palestinians would take it as a sign that Israel is caving and they would seek to take over Jerusalem.I do not think that would do either the Palestinians or the Israeli's any good.

Thank you for acknowledging that terrorism existed prior to 9-11. It has been around and we have been living with it.

Regardless of your political beliefs, think about Robert F. Kennedy. He was an American Senator running for President. Sirhan Sirhan, an anti-Israeli pro-Palestinian, kills him. Can you imagine if a similiar action was taken "post 9-11"? We would act like the situation was different when in fact it isn't. Terrorist in America, 1968.

Arafat was a terrorist and now he is dead. Life ends. life goes on.

Terrorism existed before 9/11, no one has ever disputed that. But never in our country's history, had so many innocents been killed in such a fashion. They let us know we were NOT as safe as may be some of us assumed we were. We have American terrorist, we knew that, that took out the Fed building in OK. City...but this does NOT mean we say , " Oh well...life goes on." That kind of thinking is dangerous. I am sorry, I disagree with you on that Top Dog, but my acknowledging that there was terrosrism PRIOR to 9/11 has not changed my stance on the war on terrorism. I am not in favor of just sitting with our thumbs up our butts and NOT do anything about the terrorists worldwide.

Wasn't Israel "created" in 1948?
Aren't the Palestinians fighting to regain their homeland?
Wasn't Israel guilty of terrorism when it took Palestinian land by force?
Why should US support automatically make the Israelis "right" and the Palestinians "wrong"?

At 4:30AM on September 5, 1972, five Arab terrorists wearing track suits climbed the six and 1/2 foot fence surrounding the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany. Once inside, they were met by three others who had gained entrance with credentials. Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five terrorists, and a German policeman were dead.

The Munich operation was ordered by Yasser Arafat and carried out by Fatah, Arafat's faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The father of modern terrorism is dead - and hailed as a hero.

No further comment.

Terrorists turn '72 Munich Olympics into bloodbath

Eleven Israeli athletes are killed during daylong siege. Airport shootout also leaves 5 captors, 1 policeman dead.
By BRUCE LOWITT

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 29, 1999


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time was, wars were suspended during the Olympics and armies prohibited from attacking the ancient Games. Truces permitted worshippers and athletes to travel safely.

Times change.

Modern Olympics have been suspended for two world wars.

At 4:30 a.m. Sept. 5, 1972, war, politics and religion invaded the Munich Olympics.

Terrorists claiming to be from Black September, a Palestinian guerrilla group, stole into the Olympic Village dressed as athletes and carrying their weapons in gym bags. They killed two Israelis and took nine hostage.

The terrorists demanded the release of 200 Arab guerrillas jailed in Israel and safe passage for themselves and the hostages. By 11 p.m. the hostages, five of their captors and one West German police officer were dead, the outcome of a failed rescue attempt. Three Arabs were captured.

During the siege, with two Israelis already dead, Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee, ordered that the Games continue.

"Walled off in their dream world," New York Times columnist Red Smith wrote, "appallingly unaware of the realities of life and death, the aging playground directors who conduct this quadrennial muscle dance ruled that a little blood must not be permitted to interrupt play."

The following day, competition was suspended. The 11 surviving Israeli Olympians, wearing white yarmulkes and maroon blazers, sat among 3,000 athletes, surrounded by 80,000 spectators, honoring and mourning their murdered teammates in a memorial service at the enormous Olympic Stadium.

Five hours later, Brundage decreed that the Games resume, another controversial decision criticized by Israel and other nations, though some Israelis said canceling the Games would have been giving in to blackmail. Also controversial: a pre-Olympic decision by Israel to deal with its security concerns without special treatment from West Germany.

From various accounts, this is what took place that Tuesday in September:

The assault on 31 Connolly St., one of the buildings at the Olympic Village, began at about 5 a.m. with a knock on the door of 33-year-old wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg. He opened it a crack, saw the attackers, put his shoulder to the door and shouted, "Boys, get out!" Weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolsky said that as he fled, he saw Weinberg hit by a hail of bullets through the door.

Weinberg was ordered to lead the terrorists to other Israeli rooms. He pointed to one with wrestlers and weightlifters, hoping they could overpower the attackers. Then he collapsed and died.

Joseph Romano, 32, a weightlifter, was next to die, also by automatic rifle fire. By now, other Israelis were being warned of the attack. Six escaped through a rear door. Three hundred armed police officers sealed off the area. Brundage and other Olympic officials convened. The siege began.

At 9:35 a.m. the terrorists issued their demands. Negotiations with Munich police chief Manfred Schreiber, in charge of Olympic security, commenced. The Arabs set a noon deadline. They said two Israelis would be shot if the demands were not met.

The deadline was set back to 1 p.m., then 3, then 5, then the Arabs canceled it. Negotiations dragged on. The terrorists rejected an offer of unlimited ransom. They rejected an offer by Schreiber that he and two high-ranking officials take the hostages' place. In Israel, Premier Golda Meir said her government stood by its policy of not dealing with terrorists.

Schreiber said he believed the building could not be successfully stormed, that the terrorists were desperate and would not relent no matter how many lives were lost. He and his colleagues spent the afternoon devising plans to get the Arabs and Israelis out. At dusk, the terrorists said they would consider leaving with the hostages.

Negotiators began trying to persuade the terrorists they could leave West Germany safely. But they were working under Brundage's instructions not to let the Arabs leave with the hostages.

A helicopter pad was hastily built nearby. The Tunisian ambassador obtained permission from his government to let a plane carrying the hostages and terrorists land at a Tunisian airfield.

At 8 p.m. a bus pulled up to 31 Connolly St. The Arab leader demanded a different green army bus "so there was no chance to do anything," Schreiber said later. "They were too clever."

At 8:50 p.m. the first of three helicopters landed at the Olympic Village. Meanwhile, a Lufthansa 737 was flown to the military air base at Furstenfeldbruck, 15 miles west of the village.

At 9 p.m. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt phoned President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt. Premier Aziz Sidky reportedly took the call and, when asked for help, told Brandt, "We do not want to get involved in this" and hung up.

A minute or two after 10 p.m., the terrorists and hostages emerged from the building, the Israelis bound, blindfolded and tied close together. "This made it impossible to try anything with sharpshooters inside the village," Schreiber recalled. Weightlifters David Berger, 26, and Zeev Friedman, 28; weightlifting instructor Yacob Springer, 51; wrestlers Eliezer Halfin, 28, and Mark Slavin, 18; wrestling referee Yosef Gutfreund, 41; fencing coach Andre Spitzer, 45; athletics coach Amitzur Shapira, 32, and marksmanship coach Kehat Schorr, 53, were herded into the bus. Schreiber and two officials rode with them to the helicopters. The West Germans boarded one, the terrorists and hostages the others. They landed at Furstenfeldbruck at 10:30 p.m.

The pilots had been told the West Germans would try to rescue the Israelis because allowing the Arabs to leave with them "would have been a certain death sentence for the hostages," Bruno Merk, interior minister of Bavaria, said. What happened was not what the pilots expected. The Arabs told them to stand in front of their aircraft, breaking a promise that West Germans would not be involved as hostages. Two Arabs and one or more Israelis walked the 170 yards to the plane for an inspection. They were walking back when one or more sharpshooters hidden in the darkness fired. In the ensuing firefight, the Arabs on the ground killed the Israelis with them. Other terrorists leaped from the helicopters. Several unleashed automatic fire into one, killing the Israelis inside. One of the terrorists tossed a hand grenade into the other helicopter, killing its occupants.

Five days later, in the rain, a subdued closing ceremony was held that included a silent meditation and fewer athletes than usual. The flags of the competing nations were paraded around the stadium. Israel's was not among them.


-- Information from the New York Times was used in this report.

From Palestinefacts.org

Quote:

---

At a ceremony in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 1994 Yasser Arafat, master terrorist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize was awarded jointly to Arafat, Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East." The three were granted the prestigious prize, prematurely as it turned out, for their roles in the historic Oslo Accords signed the previous year and their committment to the Peace Process envisioned by the Accords. After generations of warfare and terrorism, it seemed peace was at hand.


The decision to award Arafat the coveted Nobel Prize was based on the belief that he had renounced acts of terror and had become a sincere participant in a true peace process. The Oslo Accords and successor agreements in the Peace Process bound Arafat and his people to recognize Israel's right to exist, to guarantee Israel's safety and security within defensible borders, and to work by a peaceful series of negotiations toward resolution of remaining problems. Nonetheless, Nobel committee member Kaare Kristiansen quit rather than be party to a prize that included Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

But this was all a fiction. Even in 1993 and 1994, with the ink fresh on the peace agreement papers, there was a high rate of terrorism against Israel; seventy-three Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed and more than 100 wounded in 1994, up slightly from 1993. In a preview of the pattern that still persists today, Israeli officials urged the Palestinian Authority to take tougher measures against terrorists and the PA claimed to be doing so even while the terrorism went on and on.

During the 1990's it became abundantly clear that Yasser Arafat was less than fully committed to the peace process, which ultimately failed at Camp David and resulted in the bloodshed of the al-Aqsa intifada starting in September 2000. Groups have come forward demanding that the Peace Prize be revoked, based on Arafat's bad faith, but revocation is unlikely.

---

I guess even more unlikely now.

SJ?

Life does go on. It is happening today, all around us. I'm still trying to find where I said "oh well". When you find it in my post please show me.

My argument is that Arafat is a terrorist from a group that has inflicted violence on many people. I point out that a Palistinian killed an American Presidential Candidate and you start talking to me like I am for "sticking our thumbs up our butts". Your point is what?

I apologize if I read your post in the wrong way. Sincerely.

I guess I thought you were twisting something with 9/11...my bad top dog and I am sorry. Arafat was a terrorist...period!

It's cool SJ - Thank you for the kind response.

The uprising begins. Militants bgan shooting in a tent set up for mourners near Arafat's burial site. Apparently upset by the "moderate" replacement of Arafat. A Palestinian oplice officer was fataly wounded. The successor of Arafat was unharmed and was removed safely from the tent.

How deep are they gonna bury this bastard?

Our tax dollars at work.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6678187/

U.S. gives $20 million to Palestinian Authority

Money will be used to boost economy ahead of Jan. 9 elections

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 11:33 a.m. ET Dec. 8, 2004

OSLO, Norway - The U.S. government has pledged $20 million to help boost the Palestinian economy, attendees at a donors conference in the Norwegian capital said Wednesday.

Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Khatib said the money was earmarked for the Palestinian Authority's budget support.

"Now there seems to be wide recognition at this conference of the urgent needs of the Palestinian Authority for immediate financial support," Khatib said......

no surprise, they'll hold true to the patter he taught them.
Calling him a rodent is a insult to rodents!

...has anyone else ever noticed his amazing resemblance to the older Ringo Starr? Just an observation.