Noble Peace Prize Winner on Deathbed
The only reason to mourn Arafat's coming demise is that now the Nazi will probably never stand trial for his brutal and inhuman atrocities, or for his history of terrorism. It is rightly forbidden to take joy in the death of even our bitterest enemies, but nothing prevents us from taking grim satisfaction at the death of this monster.
Nonetheless, even on his deathbed, Arafat is doing his best to undermine the Jewish State. Ha'aretz is right that Arafat's death will make it much harder to justify unilateral disengagement. Sharon already faces international pressure to expand disengagement. While I doubt that the next Palestinian leader will be any less committed to destroying Israel than the last one was, the world is very, very good at ignoring the Jew-killing of Jew-killers. It took 40 years, 9/11, the Passover Massacre, and the Bush doctrine to convince even a small segment of the world that giving concessions to Arafat did nothing but encourage terrorism - and Europe was still committed to forcing Israel to negotiate with him! So now we begin the countdown to the pressure on Sharon to "seize this unique opportunity" by "reaching out" to the Palestinians in the form of concessions. Drained politically, with almost no support on the Right, Sharon will have to look to Labor for a unity government - and the price of this government might well acceding to international pressure. Sharon can either give into these demands and try to form a new government (if the Likud Central Committee will even let him) - which will require giving away almost everything - or go to new elections. If he goes to new elections, there's very little chance that he makes it through the primaries. So Israel gets either a Labor government ready to give away everything or a ham-handed anti-diplomat like Netanyahu who refuses to give away anything until he gets boxed into another Wye-like corner and has to... give away everything. I'm not surprised - Arafat can't even die right.
UPDATE: Mere Rhetoric: it's like Ha'aretz without all the anti-Israel bias:
If Arafat goes, Israel is likely to hear from Europe and others that it should reopen negotiations with the new Palestinian leadership over the disengagement plan. If Abu Mazen takes the Palestinian throne, Israel will have a chance not to repeat past mistakes and to assist him immediately, and generously, so that he becomes a serious partner without the shadow of Arafat hovering over him. The same applies to Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Ala, who consistently avoids taking any real action.
Nonetheless, even on his deathbed, Arafat is doing his best to undermine the Jewish State. Ha'aretz is right that Arafat's death will make it much harder to justify unilateral disengagement. Sharon already faces international pressure to expand disengagement. While I doubt that the next Palestinian leader will be any less committed to destroying Israel than the last one was, the world is very, very good at ignoring the Jew-killing of Jew-killers. It took 40 years, 9/11, the Passover Massacre, and the Bush doctrine to convince even a small segment of the world that giving concessions to Arafat did nothing but encourage terrorism - and Europe was still committed to forcing Israel to negotiate with him! So now we begin the countdown to the pressure on Sharon to "seize this unique opportunity" by "reaching out" to the Palestinians in the form of concessions. Drained politically, with almost no support on the Right, Sharon will have to look to Labor for a unity government - and the price of this government might well acceding to international pressure. Sharon can either give into these demands and try to form a new government (if the Likud Central Committee will even let him) - which will require giving away almost everything - or go to new elections. If he goes to new elections, there's very little chance that he makes it through the primaries. So Israel gets either a Labor government ready to give away everything or a ham-handed anti-diplomat like Netanyahu who refuses to give away anything until he gets boxed into another Wye-like corner and has to... give away everything. I'm not surprised - Arafat can't even die right.
UPDATE: Mere Rhetoric: it's like Ha'aretz without all the anti-Israel bias:
If Arafat goes, Israel is likely to hear from Europe and others that it should reopen negotiations with the new Palestinian leadership over the disengagement plan. If Abu Mazen takes the Palestinian throne, Israel will have a chance not to repeat past mistakes and to assist him immediately, and generously, so that he becomes a serious partner without the shadow of Arafat hovering over him. The same applies to Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Ala, who consistently avoids taking any real action.
