![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/yessir.jpg\")
If
\n Yassir Arafat had not existed, the Israeli government would have had
\n to invent him, and maybe they did. Observing his unkempt
\n appearance, slovenly dress and caricaturistic profile, for
\n years we were convinced he was a golem for the Jews, erected as a lightning
\n rod, to mire the Palestinians in unproductive internecine warfare and
\n counterproductive posturing. <\/p>\n
His main instrument of survival seemed to
\n be the ruthless elimination any challenges to his power, thereby nipping
\n in the bud the
\n emergence
\n of
\n any younger,
\n more
\n honest
\n and dangerous
\n (to
\n the
\n Israelis) revolutionary leaders.<\/p>\n
But like many brilliantly subtle plans for world or regional
\n dominance (including the original Golem story), it eventually came back to bite them in the ass. Fate can also be subtle, cruel and ironic.<\/p>\n
When In a better world, George Bush would not have said, God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If Yassir Arafat had not existed, the Israeli government would have had to invent him, and maybe they did. Observing his unkempt appearance, slovenly dress and caricaturistic profile, for years we were convinced he was a golem for the Jews, … Continue reading
\n the situation eventually evolved to the point that the Israelis wanted
\n an
\n honestly
\n negotiated
\n end to the
\n conflict, there was not an honest negotiator to be found on the other
\n side – Arafat had eliminated them all. Jeff Jacoby has an apt eulogy
\n in today’s
\n Boston Globe<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n
\n on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless
\n his soul."<\/p>\n
\n who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter
\n athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools
\n and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied,
\n cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture
\n of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless
\n a creature so evil — as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference,
\n even a Nobel Prize — but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n