The Left’s Totalitarian Martyrs: Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat was an icon to the radical left. He helped to train many radical left-wing terror groups from around the world such as the Sandinistas, Red Army Faction [RAF], and even with nationalist terrorist groups such as the IRA [Irish Republican Army]. The ISM [International Solidarity Movement] leader Adam Shapiro spent the night with Arafat [even sharing breakfast with him] in order to protest Israel’s decision to keep Arafat trapped in his compound. In fact, the liberal mainstream media cried for Arafat when he was locked in the compound. In Europe, the political left mourned Arafat’s death.

But this article will show that Arafat was no freedom fighter. But he was a terrorist. He never sought to create a free democratic Palestinian state. But he sought to destroy Israel. He was the man who was one of the biggest architects of international terrorism. He even helped to bring civil wars and instability to two Arab nations Jordan and Lebanon in his attempt to turn them into a base for his terrorist war on Israel. During his rule of the Palestinian Authority [PA], he ruled like a brutal dictator. The Oslo “peace” process was the determining factor on whether he would create a civil and peaceful democratic Palestinian state that would coexist peacefully with Israel, or whether he would use the territories Israel gave him to continue the terror war on Israel until he accomplishes his goal of Israel’s elimination. The Oslo “peace” process showed the latter. He would use the funds that the international community gave him in order to aid the Palestinian people for terrorism, incitement and also put them in his Swiss bank account. Arafat was notorious for his corruption. In fact, even Palestinians themselves criticized Arafat for his corruption. As this article will show, Arafat didn’t do a single thing to help the Palestinian people have better lives. But he did so much for the genocidal struggle to destroy Israel, for radical leftist terrorism and for the Jihadist terrorist struggle.

Arafat was born in 1929 in Cairo, Egypt. But he told the world that he was born in Jerusalem or Gaza, and claimed to be a refugee who was expelled by Israel. In fact, he wasn’t a refugee and was never expelled from anywhere by Israel. “I am a refugee. Do you know what it means to be a refugee? I am a poor and helpless man. I have nothing, for I was expelled and dispossessed of my homeland,” said Arafat in his 1969 interview.

Arafat was born in Cairo, not in Israel or any of the territories that Israel won in the 1967 war. True, he was sent to Jerusalem as a small child when his mother died and then came to Gaza when it was under Egyptian rule.

Arafat joined the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the father of Islamic Fundamentalism. He became head of the Palestine Student Union at the University of Cairo.

In 1959, Arafat and a few other men including Mahmoud Abbas, who is the current President of the PA [Palestinian Authority] in the West Bank and who is the leader of Fatah and the PLO, went to Kuwait and founded the Fatah movement.

At first, the Fatah movement was a rival of the PLO, which was created by the Arab League, especially by the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, as another instrument in their fight to exterminate Israel, as well as by the KGB as another instrument by the Soviet Union in order to bring down the democratic west. Both Fatah and the PLO sought [and still seek] the destruction of Israel and committed terror attacks on the Jewish state before and after the 1967 war. In fact, the first attempted terror attack by Fatah was on the Israel National Water Carrier in 1965. That attack was a failure. But the Fatah movement did commit terrorist attacks on Israel before and after 1967.

Fatah became a faction of the PLO. On 1967, other terrorist groups like the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine], which was Communist, were founded as PLO factions. In 1969, Fatah became the dominant faction of the PLO when Yasser Arafat made himself the chairman of the PLO.

It was under his leadership that the PLO became the architect of international terrorism. Under Arafat, the PLO wasn’t only committing small terrorist attacks on innocent Israeli civilians. Under Arafat’s leadership, the PLO would also export that terrorist campaign to the west and would escalate [or start] training other left-wing revolutionary terror groups, all around the world. Under Arafat’s leadership, the PLO’s terrorist campaign against Israel was upgraded.

As seen from the first hyperlink, Francis Wuntz, who was president of the left-wing bloc in the European Parliament, said,”President Arafat has always honoured Europe.” No he didn’t. Arafat trained radical left-wing groups in Europe like the Red Army Faction [RAF], a Communist terror group that was dedicated to imposing totalitarian Communist rule on west Germany. He also trained the IRA [Irish Republican Army], which carried out a brutal terrorist campaign on Britain. Arafat’s PLO trained terror groups from all over the world including Europe. In fact, under Arafat’s leadership, the PLO was even more close to the Soviet Union, which imposed Communist tyranny in all of Eastern Europe. The PLO supported Communist Latin American groups including the Sandinistas. The PLO got backing from Communist Cuba. Under Arafat’s leadership, the PLO became even more of a useful instrument for the USSR in aiding revolutionary leftist terror groups and in helping to bring down the democratic west.

In 1970, Arafat and the PLO went to Jordan in order to turn Jordan into a terrorist base to launch attacks on Israel. The PLO sought to control Jordan and turn it into a terror dictatorship that will be used as a base to launch attacks on Israel. The PLO sought to overthrow the King Hussein regime. The PLO terrorized the people and army of Jordan and was also creating roadblocks and using maftia-style terror in order to get control of Jordan. Page 6 of David Raab’s book said:

By Summer 1970, however, pervasive, disruptive, armed fedayeen [PLO] had wrought anarchy throughout the kingdom. They set up roadblocks around the country not only to protect themselves from the government but to shake down civilians. They extorted shopkeepers, businessmen, foreigners, and civilians at gunpoint; they impounded cars and threatened judges. Fatah’s “cowboys” swaggered around, heavily armed, recorded Arafat’s biographer Alan Hart “as though they owned the place and could do what they liked.”

The PLO was terrorizing the country like crazy. Eventually, King Hussein’s army drove the PLO out of Jordan, even killing more Palestinians than Israel. The event became known as Black September, which was the name Fatah would use in carrying out deadly terrorist attacks including the attack on the Israeli athletes in Munich.

 Airplane hijackings was another terrorist tool brought in by the PLO. It was first used by the PFLP in the late 1960’s. It continued even during and after the 1970 civil war that was fought between the PLO and the Jordanian army.

After being expelled from Jordan, Arafat and the PLO went to Lebanon in order to do what it failed to do in Jordan, which was to turn Lebanon into a terrorist base against Israel, as well as to establish a PLO dictatorship. Lebanon was the most westernized Arab nation. What many westerners don’t understand is that prior to the Lebanese civil war, the Muslims were not the majority. Christian Arabs were the majority of Lebanon’s population. Lebanon’s capital Beirut was known as the “Paris of the Middle East”. The Lebanese civil war changed that. Lebanon became seen as a bloody battleground in the Middle East conflict.

Arafat and the PLO set up terrorist training camps to train radical left-wing revolutionary terrorist groups from around the world. The PLO was one of the groups that started the war on the Lebanese Christians. Thus began the civil war. Lebanese Christians formed militias that sought to defend Lebanon’s Christian population and that sought to reestablish the peaceful democracy in Lebanon. The PLO made Lebanon a living nightmare. In 1976, the PLO was one of the groups that massacred the Christian population in Damour. Many residents there fled. The Christian priest of the town Father Mansour Labasky unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the massacre. He tried to convince the forces that were about to massacre the people of Damour not to do it. Arafat told him,”Father, don’t worry. We don’t want to harm you. If we are destroying you it is for strategical reasons”.

The PLO also kidnapped journalists and went around crazy in terrorizing the country just as they did in Jordan in 1970.

The Christian Lebanese freedom fighters appealed to Syria for help. Syria claimed to back them. The Syrians invaded Lebanon in an attempt to take it over. The Syrians later ended up siding with the forces that were at war with the Christians.

The Christian militias went to Israel for help. Israel gave them support and sought to help Lebanon’s Christian freedom fighters in liberating their country. Lebanon’s christian majority were victims of the same genocidal forces as Israel was.

While terrorizing Lebanon, the PLO also launched more terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. These terror attacks included rocket attacks that got the people in northern Israel to hide in bomb shelters. In 1978, Israel sent tanks into southern Lebanon to drive out the PLO. In 1982, Israel entered rest of Lebanon in an attempt to drive the PLO out and in liberating the Christian population of Lebanon. Israel sought to drive the PLO out and to restore Lebanon back to the democracy it was and to one that would be at peace with Israel. Israel sought to not come in contact with the Syrian occupiers. However, Israeli and Syrian troops ended up fighting each other. Syria sought to take over Lebanon and to impose its tyranny there. Israel sought to liberate Lebanon and create one that would be peaceful.

The UN-supported US peacekeepers came in to restore the peace in Lebanon. In 1983, the US helped evacuate the PLO out of Lebanon. The Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin felt horrible about the Israeli soldiers who died in that war and resigned. Yitzhak Shamir took his place as Prime Minister of Israel. Under him, Israel withdrew from Lebanon.

In 1982, Iran established the terrorist group Hezbollah, which would take the place of the PLO in turning Lebanon into a terror base. The PLO was not a 100% a jihadist group. There were also Christians in the PLO who considered themselves Arabs first and Christians second. The PLO had Islamist elements. But it also had extreme left-wing Marxist and Arab nationalist elements. The PLO was [and is] not democratic one bit, sought [and seeks] to destroy Israel and trained radical left-wing revolutionaries from around the world. But Hezbollah was [and is] 100% a Jihadist group. Iran founded Hezbollah in order to turn Lebanon into an expansionist Khomeini-style Islamist state and to destroy Israel. Hezbollah began its own terrorist campaign in Lebanon against Americans, westerners and Israelis.

When the PLO attempted to come back into Lebanon, Syria didn’t allow them back in. However, Syria supported Hezbollah. Hezbollah also supported Syria’s occupation and helped to enforce it.

Arafat had a base in Tunisia. He formed close relationships with totalitarian dictators. In 1979, after Khomeini took power in Iran, Arafat was the first one to recognize the Khomeinist regime. However, his good relationship with the Khomeinist regime was undermined by his close relationship with Saddam Hussein, who fought an eight year war with Iran from 1980-1988. What did bring Arafat and Khomeini closer together were their anti-Israel and anti-American views.

During the 1980’s, Saddam Hussein and the Saudi regime helped strengthen the PLO. However, in the late 1980’s, the PLO was weakening. The PLO did continue its terrorist attacks on Israel and in 1987, organized a terror uprising known as the first intifada. It was launched for Palestinian rejectionists to take control of the territories and then to continue the war on Israel. In 1987, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood became known as Hamas. The Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, despite their Islamic Fundamentalist and Palestinian rejectionist indoctrination and their support for terrorism on Israel, had a tolerated presence in the territories. However, that changed after the Muslim Brotherhood formed Hamas. Hamas was competing the PLO for influence. Hamas took over the first intifada from the PLO. In 1988, Hamas made a charter that called for the destruction of Israel and for the killing of Jews. The PLO charter also called for Israel’s destruction. Article 24 of the 1964 PLO charter stated that they don’t make any claim to Gaza or the West Bank, the former of which was under Egyptian rule and the latter of which was under Jordanian rule. However, in 1968, with both of the territories under Israeli rule, the PLO made a new charter. Like the 1964 one, it called for Israel’s destruction. Unlike the 1964 one, it didn’t state that the Palestinians have no claim to Gaza or the West Bank.

The PLO, though wrongly considered to be the representative of the Palestinian people by the international community [even by countries that were victims of PLO and/or PLO-trained terrorists] excluding America and Israel, was under pressure by the international community to recognize Israel’s right to exist and to end terrorism.

In 1988, the PLO decided to go along with the flow. The PLO decided to pretend to recognize Israel’s right to exist and pretended to denounce terrorism. The PLO’s real objective was to dupe the international community in order to get a terrorist base to continue the war on Israel. The PLO’s move worked in getting the US to open a dialogue with the PLO. In 1990, terror attacks on a beach in Tel Aviv and on the American embassy got the US to end its dialogue with the PLO.

The PLO and its leader Arafat did another thing, something that even cost the PLO its Arab support. The PLO supported Saddam Hussein’s terrorist invasion of Kuwait. Arafat formed a very close relationship with Saddam Hussein. The PLO’s support for Saddam Hussein’s invasion would come back to bite them soon afterward.

During the First gulf war, Palestinian demonstrators chanted,”Saddam, you hero, attack Israel with chemical weapons”.

Saddam’s invasion got worldwide condemnation, from the west, east and even in the Arab world. Saddam fired scud missiles at Israel in an attempt to gain Arab support. That attempt failed. Arab states joined the US-led coalition in liberating Kuwait from Iraq. The PLO’s support for Saddam’s invasion cost the PLO its Arab support and its western support. Even Israelis from groups like Peace Now hated Arafat for his support of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. The PLO’s support of Saddam Hussein’s invasion even got the Kuwaiti government to expel its Palestinian population in Kuwait. Kuwait expelled far more Palestinians than Israel.

The PLO’s support for Saddam’s invasion was costly. However, the consequence was short. The new Israeli government of Yitzhak Rabin would save the PLO. The PLO was no longer the prominent group it was in the 1970’s. It didn’t take center stage of the Palestinian terror struggle against Israel. That was taken by groups like Hamas. The PLO lost a lot of influence and even support from the Arab world. The Israeli government of Yitzhak Shamir didn’t trust the PLO one bit and rightly so. Shamir said things like:

 From our point of view, the PLO is not [a] partner for any peace process.

and:

We can not trust [the PLO]. They are criminals. They are liars. They are enemies of our people.

However, Rabin promised to bring peace with the Palestinians. When he was elected, his government had secret talks with the PLO in Oslo, Norway. The US mediated the talks. In 1993, then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat agreed to the Oslo peace process. Israel thought that the PLO has switched to a peace partner and that there will finally be peace. However, Arafat and the PLO never had a change of heart. Arafat and the PLO went along with it in order to get more territory and to use it to continue the terror war on Israel. As I will discuss later, Arafat violated every principle of the Oslo “peace” process.

Arafat and Rabin sent letters to each other. Arafat promised to end violence, to amend the PLO charter and to remove the articles that called for Israel’s destruction. In response, Rabin sent a letter where he stated that he’ll recognize the PLO as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people and that he commence negotiations with the PLO within the Middle East peace process. Arafat and Rabin agreed to a peace process, where Israel will gradually give the Palestinians territory in return for the Palestinian leadership’s commitment in ending terror and in recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Land that Israel gave became known as the PA [Palestinian Authority].

In 1994, Israel handed over Jericho and 90% of Gaza to the PA. In 1995, Israel split the West Bank into Area A, B and C. Area A was under the Palestinian Authority’s civil and security control. Area B was under Palestinian Authority’s civil control and Israel’s security control. Area C was under Israeli security and civil control. As a result, 98% of the Palestinian people were no longer under Israeli rule. They were under the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction.

An election in the PA was scheduled in 1996. Arafat rigged the election in order to stay in power. Arafat gave lip service in favor of peace. When speaking to his own people, he promoted terrorism on Israel and the goal of Israel’s destruction.

Soon after signing the Oslo accords, Arafat stated that they were consistent with the PLO’s 1974 phased plan, which calls for the PLO to accept any territory Israel leaves and then use it in order to achieve their aim of Israel’s destruction. Arafat also said that the Oslo accords were like the Huddibayya treaty, which was signed between Muhammad, the founder of Islam, and the Polytheist Meccan tribe the Quraysh. When Muhammad and his Muslim force felt strong enough, they conquered Mecca.

In 1996, Arafat told an Arab audience in Stockholm this:

You understand that we plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely  Palestinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion… They are and remain Jews!

Arafat ruled like a brutal dictator. Arafat got rid of the freedoms in the territories. Arafat’s PA arrested and/or killed his political opponents. Whereas, Israel allowed freedom of speech including for Palestinians who expressed opposition to Israeli rule. Arafat made it illegal to sell land to a Jew. Those who sold land to a Jew risked his/her life. They either were arrested and/or killed, possibly even publicly lynched by Arafat and/or his supported militias. Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel were also publicly lynched by Arafat and/or his supported terrorists.

The Oslo “peace” process was his chance to create a Palestinian state. But he used it to escalate the terror war on Israel. The PA-controlled TV, newspapers, radio and textbooks were rife with incitement against Israel. They included calls for Israel’s destruction and portrayed terrorism as heroic resistance. Suicide bombers were portrayed as holy Islamic warriors who fought to “liberate” Palestine from the Jewish “infidels”.

Arafat appeared on Palestinian TV inciting terrorism on Israel. Arafat’s PA supported Hamas and other rejectionist Palestinian terrorist groups. The BBC life in pictures of the Hamas founder and leader Ahmad Yassin [Yassin was assassinated by Israel in 2004] showed a picture of Yasser Arafat kissing him. On Palestinian TV, Arafat praised well-known terrorists. On PA TV, he said things like:

our beloved, the revered sheikh, …our beloved, our beloved, our beloved, our beloved our beloved, Ahmad Yassin.

and:

In memory of the noble and brave and holy martyrs: Abu Iyaad, Abu Alhol, Abu Mohammed, and before them Abu Jihad and before them Yiyeh Ayaash and after them Yiyeh Ayaash…

Yiyeh Ayaash was known as the engineer for Hamas. He helped organize many Hamas suicide bombings that occurred during the Oslo years. He was assassinated by Israel.

The PA was in violation of its Oslo commitments. The documentary “Relentless:The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East”, an eye-opening documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, showed the Israeli and Palestinian commitments made in the Oslo “peace” process. The documentary, through examination of how each side did in the commitment, showed that while Israel followed her commitments, the PA violated her commitments. Israel and Arafat’s PA were supposed to promote the idea of peace with the other side and to hunt down rejectionist terrorists on their side.

Jordan’s King Hussein, whose country Jordan was a victim of PLO terror during the Jordanian civil war, called Arafat a man “who never comes to a bridge he can’t double cross”. Even after agreements made during the Jordanian civil war, the PLO continued its subversive terror activities in an attempt to turn Jordan into a terrorist base to fight Israel.

Now, Arafat’s PLO is violating peace agreements with Israel. He used the territories to continue the terror war on Israel.

Arafat was criticized by many Palestinians for his corruption. He used the money that the international community gave him on terrorism, incitement against Israel and put the money in his Swiss bank account. Arafat was suppost to use that money to help the Palestinian people and to help build the institutions for a civil Palestinian state. One of the things the international community gave him the the money for was to start summer camps for Palestinian children. But the summer camps were really training camps, where Palestinian kids were indoctrinated into hating Israel and were trained to fight Israel. Arafat supported terrorist groups and only arrested terrorists for show. He would arrest terrorists when it got too much attention by the international community. When the international community is not looking, shortly afterwards, Arafat’s PA releases the terrorists and continues to support them.

From 1995-1996, when 98% of the Palestinian people were under PA rule, terrorism on Israel increased. That terrorism included suicide bombings. As a result, the Israeli people elected Benjamin Netanyahu to be Israel’s Prime Minister because they believe that he can bring security. Netanyahu did help to bring more security. Arafat and Netanyahu signed the Wye accords in 1998, which gave Arafat’s PA Hebron.

In 1999, the Israeli people elected Ehud Barak, who was willing to make more risks for peace. On July 2000, at Camp David, Barak offered the Palestinians most of what they claim to want. The offer was the following

-Israel would give the Palestinian state 97% of the West Bank and all of Gaza

-The Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem would be the capital of the Palestinian state. The Temple Mount would be under the control of the Palestinian state.

-A limited right of return for Palestinian refugees, but not enough to demographically destroy Israel. Palestinian refugees not included in the right of return would get compensation and resettlement

This was Ehud Barack’s offer at Camp David, despite the violations from Yasser Arafat’s PA. Arafat rejected the offer and walked away. Then US President Bill Clinton and then US chief negotiator Dennis Ross, who was at every summit during the Oslo “peace” process including the Camp David one, blamed Arafat for rejecting Israel’s generous offer. That offer was the first time Israel ever offered to give up any part of Jerusalem. Previous Israeli governments [since the 1967 Six day war] believed that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel.

Months later, on September 2000, the second intifada started. It was attacks against IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers and against Israeli civilians. It included suicide bombings and other deadly terrorist attacks. The liberal mainstream media took the claim that the violence was the result of Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount as fact. Many people don’t understand that Jewish artifacts were thrown out of the Temple Mount, which remained under Muslim control even after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six day war. The Mufti there was inciting terrorism against Israel and denied that there was a Jewish presence there. Arafat also denied that the Jews had the Temple Mount.

Imad Faluji, the PA communications Minister, confessed that the second intifada was planned before Sharon’s visit. He admitted that it was planned since Arafat returned from the Camp David summit and bragged that it was where Arafat rejected the American terms for an agreement in the heart of America.

The second intifada was organized by Arafat in order to continue the struggle to destroy Israel. On 2001, in Taba,  Barak offered the same offer. It was again rejected.

Later that year, Ariel Sharon was elected. Under Sharon, Arafat was trapped in his compound. The liberal mainstream media expressed undeserved sympathy for Arafat. What many people didn’t understand is that Arafat brought that on himself. Had Arafat followed the commitments that he “agreed” to during the Oslo “peace” process, he wouldn’t have been trapped in the compound. There would’ve been a Palestinian state and even peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Arafat’s terror war also made life harder for Palestinians and crippled the economy in the disputed territories that was prosperous during the pre-Oslo days when it was under Israeli rule. Thanks to Arafat, rejectionist Palestinian terrorists and their terror war, Israel issued restrictions on the Palestinians’ freedom of movement. Israel established checkpoints. Israel even made Israeli only roads, which were not around before Oslo. Those roads were there to protect Jews in the territories. During the pre-Oslo days when the territories were under Israeli rule, Jews were free to go into the disputed territories. Arabs were free to come into Israel. Many Palestinians were employed inside Israel. But the mobs that were organized by rejectionist Palestinians, who were supported by Arafat, violently attacked, beat up and/or lynched any Jews in the territories. Israel set up roadblocks in order to protect Jews in the disputed territories.

Many people blasted Sharon for not “negotiating” with Arafat. But the IDF found documents that showed that Arafat supported terrorists. The Israeli army even captured the Karine A ship, which contained 50 tons of explosives for Arafat and rejectionist Palestinian terrorist groups.

In 2001, Arafat’s Fatah movement attempted to assassinate Zohair Hamdan, an Arab in East Jerusalem who pushed for peace with Israel and who opposed Arafat’s corruption. Luckily, the assassination attempt failed. Unfortunately, he was wounded.

In 2001, Faisal Husseini, the PA Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, confessed that the Oslo “peace” process was a Trojan horse in order to destroy Israel.

The second intifada was even worse than the first one. It was a terrorist uprising against Israel and included even more deadly terrorist acts against innocent Israeli men, women and children inside Israel. It got Israel to even build the security fence in order to protect Israelis from suicide bombings. It worked in helping to stop suicide bombings. But not in stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.

Thanks to Arafat and his terror war on Israel, Israel had to imposed new measures in order to prevent deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks. It even gave Israel the moral justification to impose these new restrictions.

Arafat’s hands were stenched with blood. It was stenched with Palestinian, Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, European and American blood. In 1973, Arafat killed Cleo Noel who was then the US ambassador to Sudan.

The PLO’s killing of Americans even got its American victims to sue the PLO for its terrorism against them. The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff.

The PA’s widespread propaganda spread hatred against America. After the 9/11 attacks, many Palestinians in east Jerusalem celebrated the 9/11 attacks. Arafat claimed to condemn them. Arafat’s PA intimidated many journalists not to film the celebrations. The PA intimidates journalists not to report anything that it doesn’t want reported.That included the lynchings in Ramallah of two IDF soldiers.

Arafat died in 2004. He was the first [and only] mass murderer to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He shared it with Rabin and Shimon Peres because the world thought that finally there will be peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. But there was no peace. Instead, the conflict got worse than in the pre-Oslo days. Arafat was a terrorist crook who didn’t do anything for peace. He never got anything for the Palestinian people. He did a lot for the terrorist war on Israel. He did a lot for the Jihadist terrorist struggle and for the radical Lefts’ terrorist struggle. During the Cold War, he and his PLO were very useful to the Soviet Union for its training of radical left-wing revolutionary terrorist groups and for their terror campaign against the democratic west. And then as President of the PA, Arafat escalated the terror war instead of building the necessary institutions for a peaceful and democratic Palestinian state. Thanks to Arafat and rejectionist Palestinian terrorists, the bloodshed of the Arab-Israeli conflict was worse than it was during its pro-Oslo years. Arafat’s terror war also hurt the Palestinian economy. It resulted in Israel making justifiable restrictions in order to achieve peace and security. Arafat didn’t do beans for the Palestinian people. He didn’t care about them. If he did, he would’ve used the money to help the Palestinian people and to build a civil and democratic state instead of putting the money in his Swiss bank account and instead of using the money to continue the terror war on Israel. The second intifada included pro-Saddam sentiments. Arafat always had a very close relationship with Saddam when he was the dictator of Iraq. Saddam was a major supporter of the Palestinian terrorist struggle.

Arafat hurt the Palestinian people and the hope of peace to the Arab-Israeli conflict. All he contributed to was the terror war on Israel, radical left-wing terror and radical Islamic terror.