Kuwait daily to Arafat: Kill yourself - Paper says Yasser should prove himself as true leader
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Posted: May 16, 2002
5:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Two recent commentaries published in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan refer to Yasser Arafat as a leader whose role in the history of his people should come to an end – either through resignation or suicide.
Excerpts from the columns were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
"The vanquished Palestinian people are subjected to various forms of abuse and molestation, which begin physically and end mentally, bringing them pain and suffering. The Palestinian president enjoys good health and plays the role required of him in the drama that has been directed by the Zionists for the last 34 years since Arafat rose to the top of the pyramid in the Fatah movement." wrote columnist Zayd bin Ghayam.
"… My question is: Why doesn't Arafat come out in public and in front of the world's TV cameras to, at the very least, announce his resignation? If he is serious in his struggle to place the Jews in a quandary and [to] have the world sympathize with him more and more, and to distance his people from the calamities of destruction that have befallen them because of his [Arafat's] agreements and concessions … why does he not carry the weapon to fulfill his [declared] wish … to die as a martyr?! He has repeated this wish often to prove to the world that he is a resistance fighter in the fullest sense of the word. [Why does he not do this] instead of firing statements with revolutionary slogans that bring death to those around him – that, indeed, push those around him toward [death]."
Bin Ghayam continues his argument in favor of "martyrdom" for Arafat:
"Why does he not draw lessons from history? He would discover that one American Indian chief, having failed to challenge the white 'Americans' when they invaded his land, swallowed poison and died to preserve his dignity and, at the same time, to protect his people from total destruction. He would find many examples of the tragic ends of true leaders who were unwilling to accept humiliation and who, at the same time, felt guilty for the tragedies they brought upon their people."
Death won't come to Arafat at the hands of Israel, wrote bin Ghayam, "because he is a part of [the Israelis] strategy, which calls for him to preside over the summit of the destruction of the Palestinian people."
In a separate editorial, the paper says Arafat is no more than a showman and a traitor.
"Ever since the Israeli forces with their tanks and soldiers laid siege to the Palestinian refugee camps in order to liquidate Palestinian activists, particularly Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, they have surrounded Arafat in his quarters to mislead the world [into believing] that the leader is a danger and should be neutralized while, at the same time, allowing him to appear as a steadfast leader facing Israeli occupation," writes the paper.
"We see many scenes unfold in this show. We laugh incessantly at the second scene, in which Arafat appears in sound but not in picture, repeating through the world's radios and televisions: 'They want to take me as a prisoner or as a dead man, and I say, "No!" [You only take me as a] martyr, martyr martyr.'
"And the blood of the honest among his people flows in Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah. …"
Concludes the editorial, "The show finishes, and the siege on Arafat is lifted. He appears on the stage hoisting his famous insignia which, at the end of every conspiracy carried out by this traitor, he presents on a golden tray to the Israelis and afterwards to the father of treasons and the destroyer of the nation's unity and the incessant striver towards its division, [none] other than the dictator Saddam Hussein." |
