10 years ago: Good riddance to Yasser Arafat

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. Jeremiah 13:23

Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: Ezekiel 33:11a

On November 11, 2004, Yasser Arafat, 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority, died at the age of 75. Mr. Arafat, whose birth name is too long to repeat here, was a career terrorist who was best known for his leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 until just before his death. In 1993 he signed the first Oslo Accord with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, under which Israel recognized the PLO and agreed to gradual removal of Israeli settlements in portions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with implementation of Palestinian self-government over a five-year period. Mr. Arafat, Mr. Rabin, and Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Mr. Arafat made it clear that the Oslo Accords were just another step towards his goal of a Palestinian state. After being effectively confined by the Israeli army in his compound in Ramallah, Mr. Arafat was allowed to travel to France in late October 2004 for emergency medical treatment.

Officially Mr. Arafat died of a stroke, but no autopsy was permitted, and the actual cause of his death is still disputed. Mr. Arafat was actually buried twice, because his first burial was apparently not in accord with Islamic law. His current resting place is in Ramallah in Palestinian territory, as his admirers await an Arab recapture of East Jerusalem, where they intend to bury Mr. Arafat for good. They'll be waiting an eternity for that. Whatever the method of his burial, the direction should have been face down, so he could see where he was going. While I take no pleasure in the death of Mr. Arafat, neither do I miss him.

I'm not going to mention the accusations that Mr. Arafat was a voracious sodomite with an appetite for teenage boys; that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had tapes of Mr. Arafat's sexual activities; or that the actual cause of Mr. Arafat's death was AIDS.