The Shrine

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Palestinian leader Arafat dies at 75. CNN.com for details</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>The guy's been dying for 10 years...</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Yeah but this time he actually....well....ummm....died.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/mid ... =581642</a>

"Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand." ~Yasser Arafat, 1974</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>It was about a month, he developed flu like symptoms in October and he didn't recover from them.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I was exaggerating a little, but you get the idea</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Not soon enough.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Yes, he was an absolute terror, so unlike Sharon and Bush, better known as "the good guys"</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Times New Roman"; text-align: left; '>Good riddance.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Times New Roman"; text-align: left; '>At least now Israel doesn't have a legit excuse, not with a moderate like Abbas taking over.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Is he a good guy or the source of all evil this week? I need to know so that I know how to feel....</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>He was a "Controversial figure" therefore some people are like, "YEAH!" and others are like "OH NO!" and then there are like "Ummm who?" and let's not forget the Ishamael's that are like, "Is he a good guy or the source of all evil this week? I need to know so that I know how to feel.... "</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>See my response to Stephen. People shouldn't be talking about things they have no idea about</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Neither, and since you don't really know, it's better that you don't have feelings one way or the other</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>It just depends who you listen to, the Israeli community or common sense.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I'm very interested to know how you feel about it, if you'd share it with us.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Times New Roman"; text-align: left; '>Then by all means, enlighten us.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>To the Palestinians, until very recently, he was a savior. From WW2 on, there's essentially been the genocide of the Palestinian people and their culture. If you were a Palestinian and didn't assimilate into the Israeli culture (which meant that you were a second-class citizen, restricted in what you could do, what you could have, and food and clothing rations for a long time; this is why my family moved here), you were nothing to them. You had to move to Jordan (where many of them went), Syria, Saudi Arabia (if you were Muslim), etc. And we're talking about people whose family had lived in those areas for millenia (my family, for instance, was one of the founding families of Nazareth, the only truly Arab city left in Israel). If you didn't, and tried to fight for the land your great, great, great, great, great grandfather (and then some) lived on, you were basically dead. If you do this for decades, you're going to build a considerable level of resentment (for obvious reasons), even to those who decided, for survival, to assimilate. Repression leads to radical thinking and radical actions.

In come the rebels, which Arafat was one of back in the day. Then fight for what they say is "Palestinian freedom" (let's not bother with the details on whether it is or not for now). Much like the Germans in 1936, you accept these radicals as saviors even though much later you look back and say "fuck, we were such uncivilized idiots". But at that time, you have nothing and these guys are giving you something (hope, mostly). This is why Arafat and his people were considered saviors by many.

So, from the Palestinian (and some other Arab perspectives), he was a savior, not a terrorist, like the Americans and Israelis saw him. Why was he a terrorist? Because he a) went against the authority of the Israeli people and b) used extreme force to get what he wanted. Well, look at Bush and Sharon (BTW, Sharon is essentally a warlord and a war criminal; take a look at his history and you'll see that he was a part of the murders of numerous Palestinians for decades, much more than any of the so-called 'radicals' in and around that area) and apply the same criteria from a different perspective (say, the Afgan or Iraqi or Palestinian people) and you can make just as strong case (if not much stronger) that they are the true terrorists. There's a reason the UN doesn't back them (at the end of the day, the UN by its nature is the conglomeration of many, many different points of view) and a reason why the Americans are so hated on a worldwide scale (basically, they hate you, but they know they need you). And it's not just your relationship with Israel.

So, when people here or down there say "good riddance" or "thank god that terrorist is dead", all I'm saying is, try to think about what you're saying. Try looking at it from the perspective of the other side - play devil's advocate - and maybe you can develop a more well-rounded opinion and not appear as an uneducated bigot (whether you are or not, you can appear to be one when you have such strong feelings about something you know very little about; trust me, the Arabs are among the worst at this). You didn't see me come out and say "the world has lost a great, great man", and I'm Palestinian.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>See my reply to Kupek</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Thank you.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... l">here</a>

np. A pretty good article in Time will give you a brief overview of his history as well</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Yes, and what a glorious entity Palestine is today. A diseased culture locked in a self-destructive cycle of useless violence that accomplishes nothing except the begetting of further violence. What a stunning success story</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Stephen, always so full of anger, hate, ignorance, and stupidity.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>I love you too, Seeker.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>That's strange...I was going to say the same thing about Israel. I guess I don't have to.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I never said nor implied any of that. I merely implied that your response of "not soon enough" is a one-sided, uninformed, unnecessarily negative reaction based on misleading, highly-biased information and that simply wandering into the realm of Devil's Advocate could very easily change your mind</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Israel is a prosperous democracy in the middle of a region full of corrupt, oil-dependent autocracies. I'd call that a measure of success.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>How well do you think our culture would flourish under 30 plus years of military occupation?</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Interesting view.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>That's pretty much been my feelings. I really don't give a crap, though I feel like I should since this guy has been such a major force in one of the most unstable places on Earth for decades.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>We weren't talking about its form of government. (Technically, Iraq is a democracy.) I was referring to its self-destructive cycle of useless violence. Israel is just as much a part of the problem as Palestine.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Palestine is just most recently taken by them by very devious means against Britain. The Israelites have been stealing lands for thousands of years in the name of God and other Jewish Holy things.</div>