Understanding Arafat Before His Attempted Rehabilitation

[Gimel]

The internal crisis in the Palestinian Authority over the leadership of Yasser Arafat has resulted in renewed efforts on his part to present himself at the end of the day as the only realistic partner for moving forward in the peace process.

....


In Arafat's view, the creation of the Zionist movement to return the Jewish people to their historic homeland is akin to an "original sin" - a "Zionist-imperialist plot" to which the Palestinians will never acquiesce. Arafat insists on the total and exclusive rights of the Palestinian people to historic Palestine based first and foremost on religious grounds. Arafat labels the Palestinian struggle a "jihad, a holy war against the infidels." Those who perpetrate suicide bombings and their handlers are all, without exception, described by Arafat as "jihad warriors," as "heroes" who "by their arms" will realize the Palestinian vision.

....

In his view, Zionism drew its power from its ties to Western imperialism, which allowed Zionists to successfully garner the international support that served as the foundation for a Zionist takeover of parts of the Palestinian homeland. The Palestinian people, according to Arafat, found itself facing an overarching "Zionist-imperialist plot" that threatens "the existence, homeland, and holy places of Christianity and Islam, life, history, and future of the Palestinian people"9 - a plot to which they "will never acquiesce."10

Arafat perceives the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 on portions of Palestinian territory as the embodiment and fulfillment of this plot - a "black" and "cursed" day in the annals of the Palestinian people, whose right to Palestine was plundered and overcome by force of arms and its Palestinian inhabitants expelled from the "land of their forefathers."11 Arafat calls the establishment of the State of Israel a "national calamity" (nakba in Arabic) for the Palestinian people. He vehemently rejects any historic or religious claims of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel and demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the role of Israel in solving the "Jewish problem."12

More here...

[displacedtexan]

1. The first use of the term "Palestinian" was in 1968.

Yasser is an Egyptian. His mother was a Moroccan (Gasp) of Jewish heritage.

Land of Arafat's ancestors?

When did he go from being the leader of the first well known in the world) terrorist group (the PLO) to being a "head of state?"

The Romans named that land "Phillista" (after the Philistines, whom the Jews hated); later it was vulgarized into "Palestinia." Originally, it was called Judea.

I'm really confused as to the growing support for Yasser and his thugs.

If someone on this board can explain it to me, please do.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Incorrect

The term Palestinian in a nationalist context was used even before the British mandate was established. Prior to that, the Arab residents of the area might have referred to themselves as "Syrians", since that was what the imperial Turks called the land. By the twenties, when the British mandate was established in what is now Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories and the French in what is now Syria and Lebanon, nationalists in Palestine felt they had national interests distinct from those of other Arabs.

The charge that there was no Palestinian nationalism or that nobody called himself a Palestinian before the sixties has no basis in fact. It is easily refuted by historical facts. See Kimmerling and Migdal, The Palestinian People: a History (Harvard University, 2003).

As for growing support for Arafat, I don't see it. There seems to be an increased willingness by the Palestinian people to oppose Arafat's leadership for any of several reasons, most notably his penchant for cronyism.

[Gimel]

4. Support is not mentioned here

The "hope" for "rehabilitation" is mentioned. Arafat has become more vocal and is promoting the current prisoners hunger strike. Some say he has initiated it.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. No, it isn't mentioned in article

However, it is mentioned in displacedtexan's post to which I was responding.

Arafat will continue to enjoy some support simply because he is the most visible symbol of Palestinian nationalism. Nevertheless, that's all he is nowadays. A man in his mid-seventies rumored to be in poor health should think more of what legacy he is leaving and about who will carry on his work after he passes the scene. Arafat is acting like he thinks he can take that which he steals with him or that he isn't ever going anywhere with Father Time. Whatever his faults and virtues have been in the past, his current behavior is just irresponsible. It is doing his people no good.

[bemildred]

3. 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Dozens of occurrences. A sample:

There is reason to believe that the religion of Palestine in the
Amarna age was no inchoate or inarticulate belief; like the Religion
material culture it had passed through the elementary stages and was
a fully astablished though not, perhaps, a very advanced organism.
There were doubtless then, as later, numerous local deities, closely
connected with local districts, differing perhaps in name, but the
centre of similar ideas as regards their relations to their worshippers.
Commercial and political intercourse had also brought a knowledge of
other deities, who were worth venerating, or who were the survivors
of a former supremacy, or whose recognition was enforced. It is
particularly interesting to find in the Amarna letters that the supremacy
of Egypt meant also that of the national god, and the loyal
Palestinian kings acknowledge that their land belonged to Egypts king
and god. In accordance with what is now known to be a very widespread
belief, the kingship was a semi-divine function, and the Pharaoh was
the incarnation of Amon-Re. This would bring a greater coherence of
worship among the chaos of local cults.

Enjoy:

http://95.1911encyclopedia.org/P/PA/PALESTINE.htm

The use of the term in the modern sense, as a people, goes back
to 1920 or so, when the first indigenous political organizations
appear.

Some more to enjoy:

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Palestinian