To: The Washington Post From:

To: The Washington Post
From: Me
Re: Arafat's Death

I hate to tell y'all this, but Arafat was a Muslim, hence he can't ever go up for canonization. I'm no imam, but I'm pretty sure they don't have saints in Islam.

Which means, on the whole, you might want to leave off with publishing sentences like,

For virtually his entire adult life, Yasser Arafat had one
dream, and he pursued it with such energy and zeal -- some would say
fanaticism -- that he came to personify the dream itself.

Or this

By dint of ruthless violence often directed at civilians,
artful manipulation and the sheer theatrical force of his personality,
he managed almost single-handedly to elevate the grievances of a few
million disenfranchised Palestinians to a prominent place on the
world's political agenda.

Or this

He was reviled by many Israelis, who saw in him a
modern-day Hitler, revered by many Arabs, who loved him for restoring
their shattered sense of honor, and lionized by the Norwegian Nobel
Committee, which awarded him the Peace Prize in 1994.

Or this

His trademark black-and-white checkered kaffiyeh headdress,
folded and draped meticulously to describe the shape of Palestine,
became a sartorial symbol not only for the Palestinian cause but for
Third World revolutions in the Cold War era. The fascination with his
persona was so great that dozens of Western interlocutors felt
compelled to ask him why he kept his scruffy salt-and-pepper beard (he
liked it) and why he didn't marry (he finally did, at 61).

Or this

Still, few doubted his knack for survival, the product of astonishing talent, luck or intuition.

Or this

He was a born activist, obsessed with Arab politics and the
fate of Palestine by the time he was a teenager, and he was endowed
with a knack for ingratiating himself with his peers and leading them.
While a college student, he plunged further into the cause, and before
he was 19, he was helping to buy and ship arms to Arabs in Palestine in
the twilight of the British Mandate.

Or this

He seemed an odd choice to lead them; his family lived in
Cairo, and unlike the men he commanded, he had not been driven from his
home by Zionists. Yet none was as dedicated as Arafat. He neither
smoked nor drank, cared little for restaurants or European travel, had
no family and made little time for women. The Palestinian cause was his
life.

I could go on, but I think you get the gist. The reverential tones you
have employed for the obituary of a terrorist are entirely unpalatable
and would be making me gag, provided I'd eaten breakfast this morning.I
haven't yet.But after reading that piece of crap, I don't believe I
will be for fear of losing it.

Posted by: Kathy at 08:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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