The Arafat Enigma

Arafat called the Arab leader and Nazi ally, Hajj Amin Al Husseini, “our hero”. Arafat referred to “our hero Al Husseini" as a symbol of withstanding world pressure, having remained an Arab leader in spite of demands to have him replaced because of his Nazi ties. This he compared to Palestinian withstanding of world pressure for reform of the Palestinian Authority today, which includes the American demand to replace Arafat.Background: “Hajj Amin Al Husseini (1895-1974) was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. He supported the Nazis, and especially their program for the mass murder of the Jews. He visited numerous death camps and encouraged Hitler to extend the "Final Solution" to the Jews of North Africa and Palestine. In 1946 he escaped to Egypt.”In the modern pantheon of terrorists, no other figure has had the resilience of Yasser Arafat. His anti-Semitic career spans from the 1940s to the present. No other major terrorist has survived this long much less continued to mastermind increasingly more deadly terrorist attacks while at the same time become recognized as a world statesman. Even though he is an evil man, his life is the stuff of which legends are made. Arafat has a long history of cheating death. He has survived assassination plots, an air crash and several bids to unseat him during more than 30 turbulent years of rule. Arafat's murderous career actually began in Cairo, the city of his birth. Beginning there as a teenager in the late 1940s, he has ordered the murder of thousands of civilians while waging war against the Jews. He first came to international prominence after Israel defeated the combined Arab armies during the June 1967 Six Day War. His Fatah terrorist organization led guerrilla attacks against the Israelis from bases in Jordan.He rose to chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1969.His first "great escape" came in 1970 when, after Palestinians hijacked three airliners to Jordan, King Hussein ordered his forces to attack Palestinian strongholds. After nearly two weeks of heavy fighting, the PLO withdrew and he left Amman in disguise. During the decade of the 1970s, Arafat formed a "state within a state" in southern Lebanon. He took advantage of the country's bitter civil war and set up a network of hardened thugs who bullied the native Lebanese, especially the Christians. His ruthless reign came to a bloody end when Ariel Sharon, then Israel's Defense Minister, launched an invasion of Lebanon that ended with the siege of Beirut. With Arafat and his military surrounded, the United Nations-led international community once again came to his rescue. Defiant as ever, he survived numerous attempts by the Israelis to kill him and eventually was allowed to leave Beirut in 1982 with his men under a deal brokered by Washington. Interestingly, during the siege of Beirut, an Israeli sniper actually had Arafat in his sights, but Sharon decided not to have him shot. Within a year, in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, the Palestinians were forced out once more by Syrian forces. Arafat continued to rule in exile from Tunis and survived several attacks launched by Israeli agents who managed to get close enough to assassinate Abu Jihad, his long-serving deputy in 1988. In 1993, Arafat decided upon a new strategy. He pretended to opt for diplomacy instead of guerrilla warfare. This led to the signing of a peace agreement with Israel at the White House by the year's end. He was rewarded with a hero's welcome in Gaza the following year. Several years later, after being offered an almost unbelievably generous peace deal at Camp David, Arafat revealed his true intentions. He launched the most vicious terrorist campaign to date against Israel as a response. Arafat showed that nothing less than the complete destruction of Israel will satisfy him. From where did Yasser Arafat get such enduring hatred of Jews? Even more important, where did he get such expertise in killing Jews? Certainly there is an endemic hatred of Jews perpetuated within Islam. But Arafat is a breed apart even among the Islamic radicals. Mr. Arafat's mentor, Haj Amin Al Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, indoctrinated him with hatred toward Israel. The grand mufti led Palestinian Arabs from 1920 until Mr.Arafat succeeded him in 1967. The mufti encouraged Arab terrorism against Jewish immigrants to Palestine between the two world wars and, like Mr. Arafat the mufti piously disclaimed any responsibility for terrorist acts committed by his followers.