Word: arafats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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While my greeting of Arafat may seem a rather insignificant question, its implications highlight the very ambivalence characterizing a majority of those emotionally, religiously, or politically entangled in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. To assess the validity of Arafat's controversial profile, it is essential to identify the source lurking behind the ambivalence with which he is received. The discrepancy between the Yasser Arafat of today and the man whom he was yesterday is what fuels such conflicting emotions from those involved...
...Yasser Arafat today is the head of a world-recognized Palestinian nation. He is the man who in September of 1993 signed an agreement to end the bitter warfare which had been continuing since the Palestinian uprisings began in 1987. He is the leader of the Palestinian people who was invited to the White House in May of 1994 and there signed an agreement heralding the initial withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories. He is a prominent figure in the Arab world who expresses a strong desire to work out future problems with Israel by peaceful means...
This is Yasser Arafat today. One must recognize him as a key player in the ongoing Middle East peace process He has demonstrated both the desire and the ability to play this central role and it is for this important and humanity tarian function that he is deserving of support. For this Yasser Arafat of today and the peace process towards which his efforts are directed, I eagerly await to applaud...
...precisely at the moment that I envision myself clapping, a lump develops in my throat. The Yasser Arafat of yesterday is still very much alive, maybe not in the news, but in my mind. He was the head of the P.L.O., an organization recognized across the world as one heavily involved in terrorist activities...
...Under Arafat's leadership the P.L.O. executed a series of hijackings, bombings, murders and kidnappings throughout the 1970s. In 1974, Arafat appeared before the U.N. General Assembly with his machine gun strapped to his waist. He refused to recognize U.N. Resolution 242, that which planned out the basis for Middle East peace negotiations. He remained loyal to a charter which recognized the State of Israel as "null and void" and insisted that "armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine." This was his ideology, and according to the guidelines of these principles did he govern himself and the organization...