The olive and the gun

Yasser Arafat was officially declared dead today. Note the word "official" because nobody knows exactly when he died since his overbearingly bitchy wife Suha refused to release any info regarding his health status. I was never a fan of Arafat; I always thought of him as this corrupted and authoritarian leader of the people who had no other choice but to resign their collective fate to him. Most of my Palestinian friends hated Arafat and his despicable cronies and sycophants with all their guts--almost as much as they hate Ariel Sharon. I realize that this is really not a good eulogy for Arafat but then again, this is not an eulogy.

He might had started out brimming with revolutionary zeal dedicated towards liberating the Palestinians from the ghettoes of West Bank and the world's largest prison, the Gaza Strip; but, by 1990s, the nationalistic fervor that had been at the heart of the movement had all but fizzled out and Arafat seemed out-of-touch with his people and becoming all too complacent. It was as if he had all but given up and seemed content to simply exist.

It culminated in the raw deal--the 1996 Oslo Peace Accord--that he signed with Yitzhak Rabin in the White House's Rose Lawn while Clinton looking on adoringly. Poor Arafat! Keep trusting his American, Israeli and Arab "friends" and keep getting royally screwed over and over again. Despite all these character flaws, I still think the Palestinian people has lost a great leader that had somehow managed to push the issue of the Palestinian plight from the shadows of obscurity to the glowing light of the world stage--mainly through his penchant for shocking antics and constant publicity.

The title "The olive and the gun" refers to the Arafat's first speech at the UN in 1974. He walked into the gallery, all decked out in his green fatigue and the ubiquitous checkered keffiyeh, to give his speech while holding a gun's holster in one hand and an olive branch in the other. His memorable words were, "Please help me not to drop this olive branch I'm holding in my hand" or something close to it. May you rest in peace, Yasser. Innalillahi-wainna-ilaihirojiun.