Arafat Dead at 75

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a symbol of statehood to his people and of Satan to many Israelis, died early Thursday morning at a Paris military hospital at age 75.

UPDATE: A longer article on Yasser Arafat located here:

“As long as the world saw Palestinians as no more than refugees standing in line for U.N. rations, it was not likely to respect them. Now that the Palestinians carry rifles the situation has changed,” Arafat explained.

Arafat’s failure to groom a successor complicated his passing, raising the danger of factional conflict among Palestinians.

A visual constant in his checkered keffiyeh headdress, Arafat kept the Palestinians’ cause at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But he fell short of creating a Palestinian state, and, along with other secular Arab leaders of his generation, he saw his influence weakened by the rise of radical Islam in recent years.

Arafat became one of the world’s most familiar faces after addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 1974, when he entered the chamber wearing a holster and carrying a sprig. “Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun,” he said. “Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”

A pointed symbol, but one of a peacemaker?

It will be interesting to see how the history books write of Arafat. Thrusting guns into the hands of militants in order to gain respect? If this is his most notable acheivement, then how does this bode well for the peace process? For peace anywhere?

I worry. Needlessly perhaps, but this isn’t an unremarkable event. Without an heir or successor, Arafat’s legacy is no longer that of peace, but one of resistance. Which will the Palestinians emphasize? More accurately, which will Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the al-Asqa brigades respect?

Praying for peace in the Holy Land. . .