YASSER ARAFAT 1929-2004: DEATH OF A TERRORIST

YASSER ARAFAT 1929-2004: DEATH OF A TERRORIST
by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher

November 12, 2004

PLO Leader Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) (FNC) Just as it will eventually call on each of us, the Grim Reaper came knocking on PLO founder Yasser Arafat's (right) door earlier this week when he kicked the bucket. In many respects this call came right on time. Denied his lifelong wish to die a martyr, he instead died a sick, broken, diseased and pathetic old man whose kidneys and liver went out on him before blood started seeping into his brain and eventually he just gave out. Apparently, while spite can be a powerful motivator for good, hate cannot be.

As expected, treasonous Jimmy Carter - who never fails to be on the wrong side of just about every issue - was quick to praise this "great statesman". What a pile of crap! Arafat was a thief, a plundering embezzler (hoarding billions for himself that was earmarked for others), a murderer and a terrorist whose sole lifelong ambition was the annihilation of Israel. Most Israelis and Westerners wise enough not to buy into the PLO party line rejoiced over the death of Arafat. They also know that with his passing comes a possibility (however remote) of any kind of peace in the Middle East.

Arafat was the anti-Christ of the Middle East in much the same way Hillary Clinton is in the United States. They're both polarizing figures who bring out the absolute worst in others and not so much appeal to, but rather, prey on people's most terrible fears and seek to divide and turn them against one another before coming in, fixing the "mess" that they themselves created and then being seen as a redeemer of sorts. Seeking not to serve the people they purport to either represent or lead, they only help themselves, and much like Hillary's multi-million dollar book deal made only days before taking office, Arafat is but the latest example of self-servitude being crystal clear, especially when it came to the PLO's finances.

A lifelong bachelor until marrying at 60, he apparently woke up one morning and figured that being married to the job - that of terrorist - had him realizing the time-honored adage I heard from a cop friend who once told me, "If you marry the job, someday you'll wake up and discover you married a whore." By that, he meant that one day, I'd be there and the job wouldn't. So Arafat went out and did the next best thing and married a French whore who, as hard as it may seem, actually outdid Anna Nicole Smith.

Remember Smith? The then-26-year-old top-heavy bimbo married Texas gazillionaire J. Howard Marshall when he was nearly 90, only to have him die 13 months later. You think she didn't know he was about to have his ticket punched? Yeah, right, and I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale. All those subsequent cries of gold-digging made Anna Nicole's name a whole new term in the lexicon the way Robert Bork had his name added when "Borked" became one when his Supreme Court nomination went down in flames in 1987. Though Smith sued her former stepson for half of the $1.6 billion family estate, she wound up with only $88 million. Why mention this? Because Smith set a new standard for gold-digging and pillaging - that is, until now.

Earlier, I mentioned that Arafat married his secretary Suha several years ago; who I believe converted to Islam as a matter of convenience. This gal was no idiot. She hunkered down with him at first to show she was 'committed' to him - yeah, right - to his money. She, along with one other person, knew where all the PLO secret accounts and funds were stashed, and unlike the Swiss who blab, I suspect those funds are hidden in places where the weather is a lot nicer. With the Israelis forcing Arafat to hole up in Ramallah, she headed back to her comfy digs in Paris with their little girl and the opulent lifestyle she was accustomed to - in other words - typical indolent French, pimping off the fruits the labors of others. When Arafat's health started going downhill and she knew the end was near, she persuaded PLO leadership to have him come to Paris for medical treatment for a couple of reasons; first, Ramallah and the West Bank is not exactly known for its excellence in medical facilities and health care practitioners, and second, getting him in Paris with her puts her in firm control of matters and cut the PLO out of the decision-making loop which under French law, gave her all the power in deciding who gets to see him in his hospital room and who doesn't.

There's cold and then there's ice cold. The world's premier terrorist is dying in a hospital bed and she's in the hall with senior PLO leadership brokering a deal guaranteeing her $22 million a year for the remainder of her life (she is 41), thus allowing her to live off embezzled funds before she would release to the leadership the information on the accounts. With life expectancies for women such as they are - assuming she doesn't smoke - and factoring she either doesn't drink at all or if she does, drinks lightly, she can expect to live to 86 or so, that's 45 more years times $22 million for a lifetime total of $990 million, or nearly $1 billion, and some folks thought Anna Nicole was a gold-digger. Anna Nicole, you can't hold a candle to Suha, to whom I tip my hat.

I'm kind of tickled she did it. It's like the movie The Italian Job. Arafat plundered all those billions over the years, and she turned the tables on them, scoring some of it for herself, rather than let those terrorist scumbags pull it all out from under her when Arafat finally kicked the bucket. Now that the SOB is gone, good riddance! My only regret is that he wasn't cremated and his ashes flushed down the toilet - an end symbolically fitting of a person who soiled everything he touched. ***

Photo of Timothy Rollins courtesy of staff files
Photo of PLO Leader Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) courtesy of Fox News Channel