ARAFAT'S TRUE LEGACY

Arafat's True Legacy by Mario Loyola
AT HIS DEATH, Yasser Arafat was viewed in Europe--always his most important constituency outside the Middle East--as the humble and pitiable leader of the dispossessed Palestinian people. But this image does little justice to the magnitude of his achievements. Arafat was the father of modern terrorism, and leaves behind a people ruined almost beyond salvation, a West divided against itself, and a global conflict that may last generations.

Nobody could have predicted how fitting his last days would be. The story that played out at Percy Hospital in Paris was the story of his life: a farce wrapped in lies and manipulations. His estranged wife Suha, a Palestinian Christian who lives luxuriously in Paris, suddenly appeared at his bedside to take control of all access, information, and, apparently, his life support. What happened next was pure Venezuelan soap opera. She refused to allow him to be taken off life support or declared dead unless the Palestinian Authority her husband had systematically looted guaranteed her pension. On Al Jazeera, she hysterically accused former and current Palestinian prime ministers Abbas and Qureia of conspiring to bury her husband alive. Privately she demanded that her maintenance be fixed according to the last payment she received from Arafat, a brazen act of extortion that won her a commitment of perhaps $20 million a year. No worries: If the PA remains true to Arafat's form, the agreement is worthless.

Probity, alas, was not high on the list of Yasser Arafat's qualities. While there is propaganda to the effect that he was Palestinian, there is no evidence he was anything but an Egyptian. In fact, there is little evidence that he ever set foot in the occupied territories until 1994. The story of his life until then bears retelling......