Bloodthirsty Liberal

Death to Israel! Death to the Jews!

There’s not much the widow Arafat says that I agree with, but I can see her point here—even if I think the metaphor is a little strained. I don’t see her late old man as a manatee so much as I see him as a carp or maybe a catfish:

But if she wants to romanticize him in her memory as a ma—what? What’s that?

She said what?

Over seven years after the death of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, the CNN network is publishing a rare interview with his widow Suha Arafat.

In the interview, parts of which were published on Wednesday, Suha discusses her suspicions that Israel poisoned her husband, the possibility that she would enter politics, and claims that she only married Arafat because of his position and then abandoned him at a the toughest point in his life.

…

Following allegations within the Arab world that Israel poisoned Yasser Arafat, who died of a mysterious illness in 2004, Anderson asked Suha whether she would have wanted a full autopsy on his body.

“Yes, but it was the decision of the Palestinian Authority, and I respected their decision. Yasser died with his secrets with him and no one can know the truth now.”

…

“This has made me speak about what happened especially the last days of Yasser, the last you know, after the intifada Yasser and myself were portrayed as devils. I was portrayed as very, very – as the Mary Antoinette of the Arab world.”

Anderson did not make it easy on Suha, asking her if she believed Arafat had been a terrorist, to which Suha responded: “No, a terrorist would not have ever taken the Nobel Peace Prize. You know there is this difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist. My husband has never been a terrorist – he was a freedom fighter.”

…

“Did he have a conscience?” asked Anderson; “Of course he had a conscience. Yasser Arafat was the conscience – he was the Mandela of the Arab world, the Mandela of Palestine,” Suha stated.

Maybe she’s got a point. I have a lot of respect for Mandela, but given Desmond Tutu’s despicable hostility toward Israel, there may be more to Mandela and Arafat than meets the eye.

What an opportunity missed!

On the recent anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, official Palestinian Authority TV produced and broadcast a music video praising Arafat.

The lyrics of the song glorify death, describing how “death for the sake of Palestine is good,” and how “I have poured the blood of self-sacrifice on your path.”

The song honors Arafat as someone who was “friends with the rifle,” who “declared the revolution and continued to fight,” “did not tire,” and “did not give up on the principles.”

The lyrics end with a promise to Arafat to continue his militant path:

“We swear at your grave, by Allah, not to forget your name and your oath.
We have not abandoned your weapon.”

Ummm, not really finger-snapping material, is it? “Friends with the rifle” is fine, but how do you rhyme “did not give up on the principles”? (Wore diamond studs in his nipples?)

They should have held a song-writing contest. I like to fancy myself a bit of a lyricist—at least, I’ve read most of Mark Steyn’s Broadway appreciations and interviews. So I’d like to try my hand at an anniversary tribut to the death of Yasser Arafat.

Here is a little song I wrote,
You died with something stuck in your throat.
Don’t worry, you’re dead.
People wondered why you had boys for maids,
It’s a wonder you didn’t die from… air raids.
Don’t worry, you’re dead.

They say the Jews drove you to your grave,
I say it’s cause you liked to misbehave.
Don’t worry, you’re dead.
You widow and girl look kinda weird,
I guess yours wasn’t the only beard.
Don’t worry, you’re dead.
Don’t worry, you’re dead.
Don’t worry, you’re dead.

Eat your heart out, Ira Gershwin.

Aww, little Zawha Arafat is all growed up:

And she’s got her daddy’s ‘stache by the looks of it. (Bad BTL! Leave the poor girl alone!)

Suha and Yasser Arafat’s only daughter, Zawha, was born five years after their wedding in 1990. Suha, who has spent most of her time abroad since her husband’s death, has been widely criticized in the Arab world for her lavish lifestyle.

On Thursday AFP published rare photos of 16-year-old Zawha Arafat, whose public appearances have been scarce. Zawha and her mother currently reside in Malta.

I was trying to remember the quote I thought was about Malta and I thought was from Graham Greene and I thought said something like Malta was a place of shady men of shadier characters. But I can’t find it online.

I did find David Niven’s verdict that “Malta is a sod of a place”, so that will have to do.

I don’t know why the report is 558 pages, when the answer is only four letters long:

A nephew of late PLO founder Yasser Arafat says the family will be releasing a 558-page French medical report detailing the cause of his death.

Naser al-Qudwa told the Palestinian Authority’s semi-official Maan News Agency the document is being translated from French before it is released.

Al-Qudwa claimed the report would answer “many questions,” adding the ‘Palestinian people’ had a right to clear answers regarding his uncle’s death.

The report by French doctors reportedly describes a platelet disorder and speculates on its cause. The doctors, however, ruled out cancer or acute infection, Al-Qudwa says.

“We have said that it is poisoning,” Al-Qudwa said, insinuating – as he has since his uncle’s death – that Arafat was killed by Israel’s security services.

Al-Qudwa admitted, however, that doctors were unable to determine what – if any – poison was in Arafat’s system to begin with.

That’s because it was of a… organic nature.

Arafat died on Nov. 11, 2004 in Paris. Medical records have been closely guarded by the former PLO leader’s family, who has sought to protect his legacy amid speculation as to the cause of his death that has ranged from AIDS, to cirrhosis, leukemia, liver failure, and poisoning.

Has it been seven years since Arafat last came down for breakfast? I must make my way to his tomb like the Carters to pay my respects:

Can I have some more coffee, please?

So Yasser Arafat’s beard—sorry, wife, I meant wife—is in trouble with the law.

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s widow Souha Arafat rejected, on Monday, the accusations leveled at her by the Tunisian justice of financial corruption.

In a telephone conversation with the French AFP news agency, Mrs. Souha Arafat, residing in Malta, asserted that she is ready to defend herself against the Tunisian justice’s accusations and prove that she has no relation with the financial corruption case of the Carthage International School.

…

The Tunisian justice issued an international arrest warrant against Souha Arafat, an authorised source in the Justice Ministry told Tunis Afrique Presse.

The international warrant issued last week is part of the corruption case in relation with the deposed President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his relatives, as well as several government officials.

She lives in Malta? That makes her the Maltese Felon, doesn’t it?

But how can she be down with the struggle from Malta? Get up to much resistance in Valletta, do you, toots? Fire off a few M-80s in Israel’s general direction and call it a night? Say what you will about the old man, he was there, calling the shots from his gay bar—sorry, headquarters, I meant headquarters—in Ramallah. (How did she stay clean, anyway? Oh wait, never mind.)

I hope she beats the rap. The poor woman has suffered enough, losing a diseased catfish—sorry, husband, I meant husband. However much she has stashed away in Switzerland, she earned ever sou… ha.

If one can just get past the moral qualms of massacring and maiming innocent people, terrorism is a proven successful tactic.

I recommend behavior therapy and strong drink:

“Crime doesn’t pay” is a nice saying. When it comes to diplomacy, however, it nearly always does pay. Without murderous terrorism, Yasser Arafat would not have led the Palestinian national movement to many of its achievements, including his successor Mahmoud Abbas’ plan to ask the United Nations General Assembly to recognize Palestine as an independent state next month. Abbas has secured a majority in support of this, although not for UN membership, which must be authorized by the UN Security Council.

On the eve of UN recognition of Palestine, 18 years after the Oslo Accords carried Arafat to the White House and from there to the Nobel Peace Prize, and seven years after his death, the U.S. government now confirms that Arafat was responsible for the 1973 murder of its ambassador and his deputy in Khartoum, Sudan. The two were taken hostage and killed “with the full knowledge and by the personal authorization” of Arafat, according to a study released last month by the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Historian, entitled “Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume XXV, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1973.”

The incident began on March 1, 1973, when eight members of Black September stormed the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum during a reception, and captured the Saudi ambassador and four of his guests: American ambassador Cleo Noel, U.S. deputy chief of mission George Curtis Moore, and the Belgian and Jordanian charge d’affaires in Sudan. Black September was a transparent front for Fatah, and Arafat was the commander of both, as well as head of the PLO. When the kidnappers understood that Jordan, Israel and the United States would not be releasing prisoners in exchange for the captives, Fatah headquarters in Beirut ordered them to shoot the two Americans and the Belgian, Guy Eid.

…

Foreign Minister Abba Eban visited U.S. President Richard Nixon’s National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger.

“During the Khartoum incident, someone suggested we ask you for help,” Kissinger said, according to the newly released report. “You would have blown up Beirut.”

Eban replied: “You know that it was from Beirut that the phone call went to finish them off.”

Kissinger concurred: “We know that.”

The US had information at the time—which it covered up—that Arafat and his newly-christened Palestinian terrorists had murdered American diplomats.

That’s bad enough. But read how they reacted to that revelation:

Nixon and Kissinger wanted to moderate Arafat’s policies and prevent further terror attacks (against Americans; the others didn’t count ). For his part, the Palestinian leader leveraged the attacks to conduct diplomatic negotiations, unbeknownst to Israel and Jordan.

In a meeting at the White House with Noel and Moore’s widows on May 17, 1973, Nixon said he envied the “ruthlessness” of the Soviet and Israeli responses to terror, adding that “damned terrorism” was tearing other countries, like Lebanon, apart.

“It’s poisoning the whole Middle East,” Nixon said. “It gets down to the Arab-Israeli problem. Until that is solved, it will go on. I have talked to Mrs. [Golda] Meir as strongly as possible.

Arafat slaughters two Americans, and Nixon leans on Golda Meir (while expressing envy at her tactics against just such terrorism). Just let that sink in for a minute.

Now consider how the language of 1973 is the same as the language of 2011: terrorism is a result of the Arab-Israeli problem. Once we get Israel to capitulate, everything will be great.

How’s that worked out for you, world? How’s it worked out in Pakistan and Afghanistan? In Iraq and Saudi Arabia? At the WTC and the Pentagon? Israel gave back the Sinai and Gaza; Judea and Samaria are up for negotiation. Yet today, Obama speaks in the same tones and phrases as Richard Nixon: if only Israel would capitulate.

Just because I think America is the last best hope for the world doesn’t mean I think America is all that smart.

PS: It should go without saying, but since he says it:

Now that the information has been declassified, this means the U.S. government’s official position is that the attack was planned and carried out with Arafat’s full knowledge and personal approval.

The Clinton and the first Bush administrations considered Arafat a partner for diplomatic dialogue and he was a high-ranking guest at the White House.

You libs who like to think America is the world’s number one criminal might have a point, though you’re looking at the wrong people.

Listening to Rush talk yesterday about about how Newt was versus how Newt is reminded me of this:

Yasser Arafat making googly eyes at Daniel Ortega

As recalled by my Daily Butchery Special pieces, the Palestinians have been unrestrained savages for decades. How could even a willfully ignorant world remain so after Munich, 1972? As we’ve learned, Arab butchery of Jews goes back a lot further than that (see, for example, the 92 year-old Palestinian lady who proudly remembers her father’s participation in the Hebron massacre of 1929). But certainly since that date, Palestinian terrorists have demonstrated their true character over and over and over again.

Yet the keffiyeh is a fashion accessory, and nice liberal girls from suburban Seattle run off to Gaza to play tag with Israeli bulldozers.

And the international Left proudly embraced Palestinian Terrorism’s chief mastermind.

Or at least held his hand.

Or kissed him:

Or held his hand and kissed him:

The Sandanistas were the darling of the Democrats in the 80s (and the scourge of Reagan and the Republicans). Not only were they the agents of Marxism and Soviet Expansionism, they were on warm and friendly terms with one of the world’s most heinous psychopaths.

Politics made for some very strange bedfellows in those days: the Dems and Latin communists, Ted Kennedy and the KGB. But nothing will excuse the Left’s dalliance with Yasser Arafat.

Nothing:

PS: Let me leave you with two more disturbing pictures. One of Arafat with a mad, cannibalistic dictator, the other of him with the parents of a nice liberal girl from suburban Seattle.

Though I’ll be damned if I can tell which is which.

UPDATE

For those who say Daniel Ortega’s eventual return to power in Nicaragua shows the Sandanistas weren’t such a big deal—certainly not what Reagan made it out to be—Freedom House begs to differ:

Nicaragua
Human Rights Record
According to Freedom House, Nicaraguan authorities use violent intimidation and politicized courts for political means. Freedoms of the press and assembly have come under mounting pressure. Nicaragua is ranked only Partly Free by Freedom House, with a score of 4 out of a worst possible 7 for both political rights and civil liberties.
UN Voting Record
In the past year at the Third Committee, Nicaragua voted against the resolutions condemning the human rights situations in Iran and Myanmar (Burma), abstained on the resolution condemning North Korea, and voted in favor of the resolution on “Combating defamation of religions.”
Recent evidence indicates that Nicaragua would use membership on the HRC to shield repressive regimes and frustrate the cause of victims. Nicaragua was one of the very few countries to support Col. Qaddafi at the Human Rights Council. During the February urgent session on Libya’s atrocities, Nicaragua blamed the Libyan situation on the Western media, saying it was “whipping up violence” so that “Western imperialism could assert its domain.” In a separate statement during the crisis, President Ortega openly endorsed Col. Qaddafi, calling the Libyan dictator a “brother.”
Similarly, at the April 29 UNHRC special session on Syria, Nicaragua attempted to shield the Assad regime from accountability. According to the UN summary, the Nicaraguan representative said that the Special Session “was one more demonstration of the double standards and of the increasing proliferation of political dialogue within the Council.” Nicaragua said it was an “active member in defending the principle of self-determination” and they believed that the Syrian government would be able to achieve this “only through dialogue.” Nicaragua urged all Member and Observer States “to privilege dialogue and cooperation with Syria” and “to prefer this to condemnation measures that could hinder the finding of peaceful solutions.”

Sound like the same scumbags they always were.

More evidence:

Nicaragua suspended diplomatic ties with Israel on Tuesday in protest at Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine people, President Daniel Ortega’s office said.

“Nicaragua suspends from today its diplomatic relations with the government of Israel,” communications chief Rosario Murillo said in a statement read on Radio Ya.

Managua “underscored the illegal nature of the attack on a humanitarian mission in clear violation of international and humanitarian law,” added Murillo, who doubles as poetess and first lady.

Poetess, huh? Then here’s a bit of verse for Rosario:

A Latina skank named Murillo
Once tried to have sex with a burro.
He brought chocolates and flowers,
And tried hard for hours,
But, alas, put no seed in her furrow.

Oh yeah? Let’s see you do better!

I think we’re looking at this problem from the wrong end, so to speak:

Yasser Arafat’s personal bodyguard said the Palestinian leader did not die as a result of poison injected in his food.

“We all ate what he ate,” 47-year-old Imad Abu Zaki told the London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat in an interview published Sunday, a few days after the sixth anniversary of Arafat’s death.

The bodyguard, who accompanied Arafat from 1988 until his death at a military hospital in France on November 11, 2004, said, “It is widely assumed that he was poisoned, but not with the use of food, because we ate together with the Rais. We would eat from the same food 45 minutes before he did.”

…

Medical reports did not corroborate the Palestinians’ claim that Arafat was poisoned. An inquiry committee set up by the Palestinian Authority could not determine that the Rais was poisoned either.

Which is what I’ve been trying to tell you, delicately: he didn’t die of poison injected into his food, but by injection, if you receive my meaning, into other end of the alimentary canal. So I’ve heard.

Has it been six years since he croaked? Time flies.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to take a leak.

That’s it, Mr. President, right there. I can ricochet the stream off marble and splatter two birds with one leak.

The Liberace Museum closes and the Arafat Museum opens. Coincidence? I think not:

Thousands of artifacts from former PLO terrorist leader Yasser Arafat’s life are being gathered for a new $3.4 million museum in Ramallah. The facility, set to open within the year, is being built on to the Muqata – the compound where the PLO chairman spent the last two years of his life.

From what I hear, artifacts of his life would look like the mens’ room at the Stonewall Inn during its heyday.

Many in the PA believe that Israeli agents poisoned the PLO chairman, an accusation firmly denied by Raanan Gissin, aide to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who said Israel’s policy was to isolate, not kill the terrorist leader. Other rumors were that he died of Aids.

…

Among the thousands of items in the collection being catalogued is one of the famous black and white cotton keffiyehs worn by Arafat, that eventually became the worldwide symbol of Palestinian terrorism, and later, the Palestinian Authority. Arafat would drape it over his shoulder and chest to resemble the entire state of Israel, making his goals clear in visual fashion.

“Arafat wasn’t better than those in charge today because he brought us all those thieves of the PLO,” a Ramallah shopkeeper, Mohammed Sobeh, told the Associated Press. “But despite all that, I love Arafat because he died while he was resisting” Israel and the United States.

The only thing he Arafat resisted were the amorous advances of his wife, Suha.

Anyhow, this would make a nice poster for the gift shop.

When I saw this headline, I did a double-take:

PA Arabs Miss Arafat, Want Deal

The story just reports the results of an opinion poll in which Palestinians say (this time) they want a peace deal and that they miss Yasser Arafat.

But my eyes just grabbed the words “Miss Arafat”, and I thought for a second it was some kind of beauty contest.

Wouldn’t it be a great idea to celebrate the qualities Palestinians so admire in their women?

Of course, the ideal beauty pagent for Yasser’s tastes might look like this:

Arafat: I’ll take them all, and don’t bother to wrap.

It’s too obvious to suggest that a Miss Arafat competition would look something like this:

Of course, if the Widow Arafat is any guide to his tastes, either of these fetching lasses would stand a very good chance:

We’ve already admitted our admiration for the looks of Dalal Mughrabi, especially from this angle:

But I’d like to think outside the, uh, box (BTL!), and nominate someone for the title of Miss Arafat whose outward beauty, however ravishing it may be, pales in comparison to her inner beauty: the Iranian stoning victim. [File under Aggie Gets Results.]

Iran has not yet executed a woman who is imprisoned and awaiting death by stoning.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old widow and mother of two convicted of adultery, was also charged for allegedly conspiring in the death of her husband, but said she was subsequently acquitted of the murder.

“The man who actually killed my husband was identified and imprisoned, but he is not sentenced to death,” she observed in a conversation with The Guardian in August.

So far, a worldwide campaign to appeal to the Iranian government not to execute her as sentenced on November 3 has apparently been successful, at least temporarily.

As it turns out, she’s not bad looking at all:

I just pray that the honor is not awarded posthumously.

[Great minds think alike: see Aggie's post below.]

Ah, let the dead lie in peace, right? What’s past is past, water under the bridge.

Speaking of water:

The late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat had instructed Hamas to launch terror attacks against Israel when he realized that peace talks with Israel weren’t going anywhere, Mahmoud Zahar, one of the Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, revealed on Tuesday.

“President Arafat instructed Hamas to carry out a number of military operations in the heart of the Jewish state after he felt that his negotiations with the Israeli government then had failed,” Zahar told students and lecturers at the Islamic University in Gaza City.

Zahar did not specify when and how Arafat instructed Hamas to launch the “military operations” – most of which were suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians.

However, it is believed the reference is to Arafat’s response to the failure of the Camp David summit in 2000.

Isn’t that special? Talk peace, but prepare slaughter. Like the Boy Scouts, Arafat resolved to “Be Prepared”.

I don’t suppose that’s typical of the Palestinians, is it?

Nah, attempting the murder of innocent people probably died with Arafat:

Jerusalem Arabs, including children from an Israeli government school, attacked and wounded the director of the Almagor terror victims group early Wednesday morning. He and his wife narrowly escaped murder at the hands of the rioters.

…

“My father was sitting next to my mother, and they were stuck in traffic and blocked by a car full of Arabs,” early Wednesday morning, she reported. “Suddenly, the Arabs attacked them with metal rods, cinder blocks and rocks with the participation of children from the adjacent Al Tur school.

Amusing; Israeli Jews use cinder blocks to build homes; Israelis Arabs use them to attack Israeli Jews. And guess which one is met with universal condemnation?

PS: Who is the Almagor terror victims group? This is who.

Freemiddleeast.com rightly observes that the issue is not Palestinians versus Israelis—it’s Palestinians versus everyone else:

I wouldn’t have included the widow Arafat, however.

I don’t care in which smuggling tunnels he preferred to hide his Qassam, she had to appear with him more often than my stomach could take.

What’s the name of that cologne, darling, Road Kill or Low Tide?