Yasser - The Man of the hour
“Engineer Yasser Arafat” the name tag announced. That is what my dad remembers from working in the same building with the man. The year was 1963 and my dad was working in the interior ministry of Kuwait as an Engineer. He was working in the housing construction department, Engineer Yasser was in the road construction department. I pressed my dad to tell me something about Yasser, “what was he like? how was his personality? How did he dress?” on and on my questions went. My dad shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t remember, this was long time ago, all I remember is that he was there and I remember his name tag outside his office as I walked by in the corridor, that is all I remember”
Wow! this Yasser Arafat must have been some impressive guy, that all my dad remembers of him is the name tag outside his office.
Those were the days before the myth of Yasser Arafat. Back then Yasser was yet another Palestinian, yet another stateless person, nothing more, nothing less.
And then there was the forming of Fateh, the Palestinian resistance movement that was formed in Kuwait. My dad remembers going to public forums where speakers would discuss the Palestinian cause. Yasser was a frequent speaker at these forums. Again I quizzed my dad, “What did he speak about? Were his speeches eloquent? Was he passionate or emotional?” My dad shrugs his shoulders again “I don’t remember, this was long time ago, all I remember is that he was there, and that he spoke, but that is all I remember”
Wow! that Yasser sure left a lasting impression. My dad heard him speak several times and can’t remember a single thing he said. Must have been very impressive, ha?
Ok, so lets summarize what we know about this guy. He was a short ugly Palestinian guy, who looked like Ringo Star. He gave lousy speeches and lacked personal charisma. At least Ringo knew how to play drums. Yasser sure wasn’t given much to start with as far as leadership goes.
He did have other gifts. Like survival. He survived dozens of assassination attempts most of them by the Israeli intelligence, expulsion for Jordan, then siege and expulsion from Lebanon and even an airplane crash in the Libyan desert. His guardian angel deserves a vacation, he must have been working awfully hard all these years. I wouldn’t mind having his guardian angel - now that he is unemployed - as my own even though I have to attest that my own guardian angel has been doing a pretty good job so far.
His other gift was that he found ways to appeal to a wide range of the Palestinian population. He was secular but not so secular as to offend religious people. He was neither particularly left nor particularly right. He made many goodwill gestures towards the Christian Palestinian community. In a region where most leadership is either installed by the CIA or is the remains of the colonial days, Yasser was a unique Arab leader who stood up in defiance of the colonialism and the US plan for the middle east. Despite all the vilification attempts by western media, he was actually a moderate man. Ready to fight when need be, and ready to negotiate when need be. It is due to his leadership that large sections of the Palestinian community was united under one goal and one leadership.
Finally, he appealed to people because of his own personal heroism. Time and again he was willing to put his own life in danger and participate in person in the fight in order to pursue what he believed in. He wasn’t one of those leaders who sat in a cushiony office while giving orders to others to fight, like some other recently elected world leader. Throughout his life Yasser was there with his fighters, willing to participate in person and placing his own life in danger.
“I am totally fed up with carrying my gun all the time, I want to live like a human being. But, I am ready to die fighting to establish freedom for my people and my homeland”
Yasser Arafat said during the expulsion from Lebanon. These were not just words he said, these were words that he lived by.
Nobody can deny, that Yasser made some colossal mistakes during his career. The one that enraged me in particular was his support of Saddam Hussein after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. I still don’t understand his reasoning for such a stupid step and at the time I wished to punch him the face over it. There was corruption and elitism within the ranks of the Palestinian authority, that was apparent to everybody. There are many other mistakes, but I won’t go into it here.
The late Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir made the statement: "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.", essentially telling the world that Israel had managed to completely erase the concept of Palestinians off the face of earth. At one point, that statement seemed that it might become true. At one point Palestinian refugees were scattered all over, defeated and who cared about them anyway. Well thanks to hard work of PLO headed by Yasser and the dedicated struggle of the Palestinian people nobody would dare make that statement today, because of the ridicule they would face.
When I first visited the occupied territories, I was surprised by how well the Palestinians were organized under occupation. There were various institutions and grass roots organizations functional despite the oppressive occupation. Schools, hospitals, daycares, orphanages, that were functional. I was amazed at the people’s resilience in the face of such impossible conditions. Whenever I felt depressed about the state of things in the middle east, I would remind myself of the Palestinian people. “At least they were fighting a good fight towards their freedom”, I would tell myself. Which is much more than can be said for anywhere else in the middle east.
He wasn’t flawless, he wasn’t good looking and he didn’t give eloquent speeches, but he was the founding father of our liberation movement. His humiliation was our humiliation, his victories were our victories. He placed the Palestinian cause on the international agenda, fought tirelessly and bravely against a military supported and sponsored by the only super power in the world. He put pride in the statement “I am Palestinian”.
It is with a heavy heart that I bid you farewell Engineer Yasser Arafat.
Ma’a al salama ya abu Ammar.
Wow! this Yasser Arafat must have been some impressive guy, that all my dad remembers of him is the name tag outside his office.
Those were the days before the myth of Yasser Arafat. Back then Yasser was yet another Palestinian, yet another stateless person, nothing more, nothing less.
And then there was the forming of Fateh, the Palestinian resistance movement that was formed in Kuwait. My dad remembers going to public forums where speakers would discuss the Palestinian cause. Yasser was a frequent speaker at these forums. Again I quizzed my dad, “What did he speak about? Were his speeches eloquent? Was he passionate or emotional?” My dad shrugs his shoulders again “I don’t remember, this was long time ago, all I remember is that he was there, and that he spoke, but that is all I remember”
Wow! that Yasser sure left a lasting impression. My dad heard him speak several times and can’t remember a single thing he said. Must have been very impressive, ha?
Ok, so lets summarize what we know about this guy. He was a short ugly Palestinian guy, who looked like Ringo Star. He gave lousy speeches and lacked personal charisma. At least Ringo knew how to play drums. Yasser sure wasn’t given much to start with as far as leadership goes.
He did have other gifts. Like survival. He survived dozens of assassination attempts most of them by the Israeli intelligence, expulsion for Jordan, then siege and expulsion from Lebanon and even an airplane crash in the Libyan desert. His guardian angel deserves a vacation, he must have been working awfully hard all these years. I wouldn’t mind having his guardian angel - now that he is unemployed - as my own even though I have to attest that my own guardian angel has been doing a pretty good job so far.
His other gift was that he found ways to appeal to a wide range of the Palestinian population. He was secular but not so secular as to offend religious people. He was neither particularly left nor particularly right. He made many goodwill gestures towards the Christian Palestinian community. In a region where most leadership is either installed by the CIA or is the remains of the colonial days, Yasser was a unique Arab leader who stood up in defiance of the colonialism and the US plan for the middle east. Despite all the vilification attempts by western media, he was actually a moderate man. Ready to fight when need be, and ready to negotiate when need be. It is due to his leadership that large sections of the Palestinian community was united under one goal and one leadership.
Finally, he appealed to people because of his own personal heroism. Time and again he was willing to put his own life in danger and participate in person in the fight in order to pursue what he believed in. He wasn’t one of those leaders who sat in a cushiony office while giving orders to others to fight, like some other recently elected world leader. Throughout his life Yasser was there with his fighters, willing to participate in person and placing his own life in danger.
“I am totally fed up with carrying my gun all the time, I want to live like a human being. But, I am ready to die fighting to establish freedom for my people and my homeland”
Yasser Arafat said during the expulsion from Lebanon. These were not just words he said, these were words that he lived by.
Nobody can deny, that Yasser made some colossal mistakes during his career. The one that enraged me in particular was his support of Saddam Hussein after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. I still don’t understand his reasoning for such a stupid step and at the time I wished to punch him the face over it. There was corruption and elitism within the ranks of the Palestinian authority, that was apparent to everybody. There are many other mistakes, but I won’t go into it here.
The late Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir made the statement: "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.", essentially telling the world that Israel had managed to completely erase the concept of Palestinians off the face of earth. At one point, that statement seemed that it might become true. At one point Palestinian refugees were scattered all over, defeated and who cared about them anyway. Well thanks to hard work of PLO headed by Yasser and the dedicated struggle of the Palestinian people nobody would dare make that statement today, because of the ridicule they would face.
When I first visited the occupied territories, I was surprised by how well the Palestinians were organized under occupation. There were various institutions and grass roots organizations functional despite the oppressive occupation. Schools, hospitals, daycares, orphanages, that were functional. I was amazed at the people’s resilience in the face of such impossible conditions. Whenever I felt depressed about the state of things in the middle east, I would remind myself of the Palestinian people. “At least they were fighting a good fight towards their freedom”, I would tell myself. Which is much more than can be said for anywhere else in the middle east.
He wasn’t flawless, he wasn’t good looking and he didn’t give eloquent speeches, but he was the founding father of our liberation movement. His humiliation was our humiliation, his victories were our victories. He placed the Palestinian cause on the international agenda, fought tirelessly and bravely against a military supported and sponsored by the only super power in the world. He put pride in the statement “I am Palestinian”.
It is with a heavy heart that I bid you farewell Engineer Yasser Arafat.
Ma’a al salama ya abu Ammar.
There is a way between voice and presence where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes. .... Rumi
8:19 AMSo this man, who stashed billions of dollars in banks around the world while his people starved is a hero?
His widow is prommised twenty million dollars a year from the Palestinian government while the poor Palestinain people suffer. The Palestinian youth are taught to hate and terrorize and Arafat was a hero? It is a shame that the money was not spent on food, medicine, and education for the Palestinians. I pray they finally can have their own soverign nation and make peace with their neighbors.
7:04 PM
Well, I think people forget that Arafat was also a self-made millionaire (during his Engineer Yasser A. days). If I remember right, he made a lot of money in the 1950s and 1960s in Kuwait as a construction engineer or a developer. Ihath, I'm not a Palestinian but the one thing that struck me about Arafat was that his personal style - spartan, simple, abstemious (didn't smoke or drink)- probably made him an exception in a part of the world where the powerful (like the Friends of Bush - the Saudi Royals, the Mubaraks, Saddam Hussein, etc.) build lavish palaces and wear designer clothing and lead generally debauched lives. This is why so many thousands of poor Palestinians poured into the compound at Ramallah yesterday. It might seem "undignified" and
"chaotic" to our uptight western friends, but the human emotion of that funeral was real. Something that is not likely to be wasted on the rich and the corrupt leaders of the Arab states when it's time for them to go. Their people will let them have their "dignified" and "orderly" funerals and will display their sentiments by their absence from the show.
7:40 PM
R.I.P.
:(
wonder what will happen now....
Javier
11:00 PM
once again ihath you have tried to fill the small minds of your arab friends with muslim conspiracy theories. what a man, this yasser, he stood up against the americans plan of a seperate palestinian state. instead he sent tons of palestinians to commit terrorism against israel, then have many more palestinians get their butts kicked by israel in retaliation. what a smart plan and what a smart man. because of him the palestinians have won. the entire israeli existance is only hanging on by a thread because of yasser and his smart moves. any day now the israeli civilization will crumble and the palestinians will march to jerusalem and claim it as their capital. the fact is that the palestinians and all the arabs are some of the poorest people on earth. since the end of WWII about a dozen wars have been faught in the middle east, the only democracies are the ones created by the US, and islam is world renowned for its lack of morality and its terrorism. history will show that yasser might have had the right idea, but violence, terrorism, and stealing billions from his own people brought him nothing but more hardship. hopefully all arabs will learn from the stupidity of men like him.
11:05 PM
anyone see the video of the marines shooting that terrorist in his head in fallujah? serves him right for hiding in a mosque and fighting like a coward. people that detonate car bombs killing innocent iraqis, soldiers, and children, then hide in mosques and laugh about it deserve a lot worse than just a bullet in the head.
8:01 AM
He was granted the martyrdom which he sought...
8:44 AM
"islam is world renowned for its lack of morality and its terrorism"
"anyone see the video of the marines shooting that terrorist in his head in fallujah? serves him right for hiding in a mosque and fighting like a coward"
I heard there was an opening in the Attorney General department. Maybe you would like the job? You are obviously overqualified but I think an exception can be made....
Javier
5:06 AM
I was wondering what your opinion of Arafat was. I hope you weren't offended by some of the opinions of him I mentioned in email and comments.
I'm afraid I don't agree with your assesment (the late Edward Said called him the Pappadoc of Palestine), but I have nothing but love for you regardless of agreement, and you still challenge me to think, and re-consider some of my opinions.
Regardless of whetehr I agree or disagree with you, you always make me think.
I do find your comaprison to Ringo Starr a bit amusing as I now wonder if Yasser ever "played the drums" :)
Javier> Well, on a poistive note, Yasser's death may lead to Abbas as Palestinians PM and hopefully he'll survive as I hear Hamas has marked him.
I also predict that the Likuud will lose the next election as the depseration that brought Sharon to power seems to have ebbed.
Things may turn out for the best in the long run, or we can hope.
9:23 AM
As a "small minded" individual, I am somewhat offended by a number of the above Anonymous comments. While it may be personally rewarding to "litigate" disputes over the ultimate character or even the net worth of an individual based upon actions taken, real and imagined, over the course of the person's life, it seems clear to me that the outcome of such litigation is determined at the time of jury selection, not by the relative merits of the arguments advanced at trial. Such "litigation" in my mind does nothing to advance the prospects of a resolution to the real controversy, nor does it create an atmosphere conducive to compromise which both parties must necessarily make if there is to be a peaceful resolution. If persons who have never been to Isreal or Palestine (that's a curious phrase), and who have not been the target of a successful verbal or physical assault by either an Israeli or a Palestinian, cannot see past their differences and constructively discuss some common goals and build a bridge together to achieve those goals, how can anyone criticize the participants for failing to have done so. If I had a solution, I would share it with you, but I will say that the continued assault on the engineer's character or intentions is an impediment to ultimate resolution of the real problem.
7:51 PM
how can anyone ever visit palestine anglo? palestinians make it hard for me to support their cause when there is an 75% chance they would cut my head off just because im a white person if i ever stepped one foot in their land. they dont even know me, yet they hate me, so how can i feel any sympathy for these people? i do think it is tragic that an entire society knows nothing but violence, fear, and hatred. the inner sadness these people must have that drives them to these extreme behaviors is disturbing.
4:37 PM
This pretty much sums up my wish for the Palestinian people:
"May the Palestinians find a leader who loves his people more than he hates his enemies."
A quote from www.michaeltotten.com. Let us all hope and pray it comes true.
12:58 AM
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
8:10 AM
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
9:03 AM
AngloGermanicAmerican asked me to post this on his behalf. The following are his words not mine.
Drat! As you can see Anon (the 7:51 pm Anon) small minds have difficulty expressing themselves accurately. The last thing that the participants need
are more non-parties joining sides and supporting either cause. What is needed, at least to this simpleton, is more non-parties joining for the
cause of a solution or resolution of the dispute. While I am largely ignorant (a confession made notwithstanding a working knowledge of what the
MSM and various secondary sources, including blogs, feed me) of the details and history of the division, I am no stranger to vicious, bitter disputes involving individuals and business organizations. When such disputes are resolved short of decision by a judge, it is because the parties have compromised their claims and defenses. A successful mediation of the
dispute invariably results in both sides leaving the table believing that they should have received more. A mediator does not take sides, but rather works with each side to facilitate an understanding of the benefits of settlement and the relative risks and disadvantages of continuing to resolution by trial. No party ever believes, much less admits, that their
claim was weak or unjustified, and successful resolution is rarely the result of shattered confidence in a party's position. My point is that
taking sides to vilify Palestinians or Israelis personally, to chastise them for their idiocy, their narcissism, their depravity, or whatever negative
human characteristic one wants to highlight does not diminish the one other than in the eyes of the other. It is simply fuel to fire the dispute, and I am weary of it.
You also ask how can you feel sympathy for these people, presumably referring to Palestinians given your preceding sentences. I am not talking about sympathy, but compassion. How? First, I think that taking sides is a dead end. Even if you spend the rest of your life trying to determine who ultimately is in the right, no one would agree with your determination other than the side that felt that way prior to your work. Even if you were factually correct, your facts would be discounted or even ignored, your conclusions challenged, your integrity and character defamed, in short, its a dead end. You are not going to convince either side that they are in the wrong. When I see a dead end sign, call me crazy, but I don't go down that
road.
Second, given the fact that going out and solving the dispute myself or taking sides is hopelessly a dead end, I look inward. It is my belief that
I and the participants have one thing in common: humanity. The ability to make mistakes, even intentional ones. If one were to strip away my
upbringing, the individuals, concepts, struggles and ideas that have up till now have amounted to my life, and then placed me in the Middle East as a wet
newborn, I think that I would make a pretty good Israeli or Palestinian depending only upon the location of the stork's drop zone. While I might hope that I would be something else, it is not beyond my comprehension that I could make a pretty good driver, whether of a bull dozer or vehicle packed
with explosives. That really is the source of my compassion, my hope for a solution, and my desire to see side taking cease. The participants are people, no better and no worse than you or I am.
Several years ago, my wife encountered significant mental problems. Marriage with three children, even in the paradise known as Western Michigan, can be difficult at times, and mental disturbance of the clinical variety can add significantly to otherwise ordinary difficulties. When our marriage was at its nadir, my wife convinced that I was the source of her
schizophrenia, and I convinced otherwise and asking myself what I did to deserve this psycho bitch, I went and spoke with family and friends endeavoring to explain the situation and our likely divorce. In part, I was looking for allies who would join with me and condemn her behavior and her irrational and confused thinking. Had I received such assistance, I
probably would never have taken the steps nor attained the proper perspective which lead to the salvation of our marriage. These so-called friends had the nerve to point out to me certain shortcomings and shortsightedness in both my behavior and in my attitude which caused me to reassess the situation and my involvement in it. The reassessment did not
result in any withdrawal of my prior conclusions that she was nuts and "did this or that," but it enlarged my understanding and enabled me to realize that none of the "this or that" was really relevant or material to our achieving our common goal of sharing in a happy, loving and rewarding marriage. Ironically,paradoxically, miraculously (they all apply), our relationship to ourselves and our children is the best that it has ever been these nearly 20 years.
While there surely are significant differences between the I-P conflict and marital difficulties or business legal disputes, I do believe that what is needed are allies who decline the invitation to join sides in the fray, but who work closely with the participant to remove the fog of participation so that the ultimate goal, the means to accomplish it, and the need to accomplish it may be seen.
7:24 PM
Ihath,
I am very sorry but I really cannot read what is on the last post with your new layoput. You have chosen to fix the font size so semi-blind people like me are not able to adjust the size to make it legible. That is true for the comment section also. I really like your site but unfortunately can no longer enjoy it.
Sorry again,
Dumb Canuck (a/k/a Advanced Calculus)
3:59 AM
si te interesa el mundo del flamenco visita
http://www.pasionflamenca.com/blog
10:41 AM
"I am very sorry but I really cannot read what is on the last post with your new layoput. You have chosen to fix the font size so semi-blind people like me are not able to adjust the size to make it legible. That is true for the comment section also. I really like your site but unfortunately can no longer enjoy it.
Sorry again,
Dumb Canuck (a/k/a Advanced Calculus)"
switch from IE to Firefox, it allows you to increase the size of the text(Ctrl +) and evens has the option to set a minimum font size
4:42 PM
Ihath
Yasser Arafat was a person who inspired stong emotions, pro and con, from people who had guns and weren't shy about using them. I wonder if your fathers not remebering details was to protect his family from people, from any side, who might diaprove of what he said?
4:55 PM
I had never had much use or thought much of Arafat--he was a thief on a grand scale, a hypocrite, etc--but I had thought that he might have in his dotage made a wise decision to go down in history as the founding father of a Palestinian state--it could have come to pass--but instead choose to stay the course that has proven so destructive to his people..Arafat is gone but his people remain in terrible economic shape and it worsens each day. This Arafat might have changed. He didn't.
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