Andy

Arafat is Dead

Well, Yasser Arafat is dead, and to be honest I don't know how I feel about it. I think it will depend entirely on news of his replacement in the coming weeks. I do not believe Arafat was a particularly good man, but he may end up being better than the alternative.

It is undoubtedly beyond our experience how any Palestinian leader can react to the rest of the world given the conditions in which the Palestinian people live and their resulting attitudes and beliefs. We sit here in America and look upon Arafat's overall lack of cooperation in mid-east peace talks with distain. Perhaps we should, but I doubt any of us know what would have happened to him had he cooperated more fully. The possibility certainly exists that peace could have been achieved, but an equally probable Palestinian coup or civil war and the consequent refusal to comply to any agreements made my Mr. Arafat in the first place may well have resulted instead. For what it is worth, I will try to keep as open a mind as I can and pray for the next leader of the Palestinian to be as progressive as his people will tolerate.