LET THE OFFENSIVE ARAFAT OBITUARIES BEGIN

Arafat, 'freedom fighter'
In the coming weeks, you'll see a number of pre-obituaries that whitewash Arafat's terrorist history, but this semi-literate one from South Africa's City Press wins the prize so far:

Faced with a string of rabid Zionist regimes that were never satisfied with just oppressing the Palestinians but hounded them out of their country and even from
neighbouring states, yet Arafat remained resolute.

He mobilised world opinion, except for the United States, and got the United Nations General Assembly to pass a resolution equating Zionism to racism. He marshalled freedom fighters willing to take the fight to the Israelis, who were formidable in their own right, but even more so when backed by the US.

When it was time for militant talk to marshal the forces, Arafat could be relied upon to produce oratory that would galavanise young and old into action.

Take a deep breath, read it over, and send City Press your comments.