Many Israeli leaders who have been waffling on this issue for some time, have now come around to support the idea of Arafat's expulsion. This includes Prime Minister Sharon. Defense Minister Mofaz has long held this opinion, even before he came to his current position.
But expulsion is not the answer. Arafat has been basically imprisoned in his Ramallah compound for the past two years, and while there is still some foreign interest in his political opinions, the stream of visitors paying him homage has grown to a trickle in the recent past. His effect is limited and negligible outside the Arab street.
Should Arafat be expelled, he would immediately be once again welcome in capitals all over the world, with perhaps the exception of the United States. He would be free to make speeches, gain support from world leaders, and make loud calls for continued violence, destroying any last hope that exists for calm in this region or for another Arab state.
The other option that exists is to kill him. The entire civilized world knows that he deserves it. But in reaction to the Israeli decision, Arab leaders, European leaders, the UN, and even Secretary of State Colin Powell, have condemned any such ideas, claiming that killing Arafat would "unleash a wave of Palestinian rage".
Here we have yet another example of the idiocy that is called Middle East policy around the world. I can certainly understand Arab leaders voicing this warning. But for Colin Powell, who so eloquently spelled out the need for eliminating Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, to come out against the similar elimination of Arafat, is the height of hypocrisy.
Why is Yasser Arafat's miserable existence so important to world leaders when 873 Israelis have been killed because of him in the past three years? When 5867 have been wounded? When 6600 families now also lead miserable existences because of what Arafat has done?
Why is "Palestinian rage" so important when the rage that burns in the heart of nearly every Israeli at the carnage that has been visited upon this country is ignored?
The "Palestinian rage" that is supposedly just a gunshot away cannot amount to the anger and pain that Israel has suffered for the past three years -- or ten -- or 16 -- or 40.
Yasser Arafat is a mass murderer, plain and simple. The Palestinian street that supports him, by extension supports the murder of innocent Jews. The blood that runs in Israel's streets, of babies, of a bride on her wedding day, of the elderly, that is cause for rage. The killing of Arafat, and the targeting of those who support his murderous plans, that is cause for celebration. Would that we not have much longer to wait.
Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
