Anniversary for a Monster

Tuesday is the fourth anniversary of the death of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) founder Yasser Arafat.

The central memorial ceremony for Arafat is being held in Ramallah, and smaller ones are scheduled in other towns and cities. In addition, a "minute of silence" is to be observed at noon throughout the Palestinian Authority in memory of "the fallen leader".

But who is the "leader" that most Palestinians glorify (while most people in the civilized world revile)?

Considered the founder of the modern-day terrorism used so widely by Muslims, Arafat began a wave of murder against Jewish and other targets around the world shortly after taking control of the PLO in 1968-9. Here's a short summary of this Monster's accomplishments:

* the Nahariya/Avivim school bus attack (May 1970). Palestinian terrorists crossed the border from Lebanon, ambushed the bus with a barrage of gunfire, murdered 12 children and 3 adults, and left several others crippled.

* the Lod Airport Massacre (May 1972), carried out by three Japanese Red Army terrorists in an operation planned and supported by PLO faction PFLP-GC, killing 26 and wounding 78.

* the Munich Olympics slaughter (September 1972), in which eleven Israeli athletes were killed.

* the Maalot massacre (May 1974) in which a school building was taken over while children from Tzfat on a school trip were sleeping there. Three teachers and 22 schoolchildren were murdered.

* the Savoy Hotel attack (March 1975) near Tel Aviv, in which seven hostages and two soldiers were killed after Fatah terrorists landed on the beach and seized the hotel.

* the Kiryat Shmonah apartment building attack (April 1974), in which Palestinian terrorists penetrated the northern Israel border town, entered an apartment building on Yehuda HaLevy St. and killed all 18 residents they found there, including 9 children.

* the Coastal Road bus hijacking (March 1978), in which 11 Fatah terrorists ,who infiltrated by sea, killed a photographer and a taxi driver and hijacked a bus filled with adults and many children. The terrorists fired on passing cars from the bus, and when they were finally stopped, they began firing missiles. The massacre left 35 people dead and 100 wounded.

* the brutal murder of three U.S. diplomats held hostage in Khartoum, Sudan (March 1973). The terrorists demanded the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian assassin of Robert F. Kennedy. Arafat was recorded as having given the execution orders.

* the Achille Lauro hijacking of a cruise ship (October 1985), in which wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, 69, was shot and thrown overboard into the ocean.

* Internationally, in 1972 alone, PLO groups blew up a West German electricity plant, a Dutch gas plant and an oil refinery in Trieste, Italy. In 1975, the presence of Arafat and his 15,000-strong army in Lebanon triggered a bloody civil war that raged on for nearly two decades, costing 40,000 lives.

Arafat was banished from Jordan to Lebanon in 1970 in the course of a violent war against the PLO by King Hussein, and from Lebanon to Tunis in 1982 following the Peace for Galilee War. He orchestrated the first "intifada," beginning in 1987, from Tunis, though it had supposedly started spontaneously.

Hamas, which took over control of Gaza from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in a violent coup in the summer of 2007, has announced that it will not allow public memorial ceremonies for Arafat. Last year, the Arafat memorial, attended by many tens of thousands, led to Fatah-Hamas violence and several deaths.

In the mean time, following the results of the US elections, Hamas is claiming close and ongoing ties with America's upcoming Obama Administration, according to a report published Tuesday in the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat. The relationship was kept under wraps until after the U.S. elections so as not to harm Obama’s election prospects. The U.S. has classified Hamas a terrorist organization.

Ahmad Yousuf, advisor to Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas regime in Gaza, declared that Hamas has been in regular contact with President-elect Barack Obama’s advisers for months.

"We were in contact with a number of Obama's aides through the internet, and later met with some of them in Gaza," the Hamas official was quoted as saying, "but they advised us not to come out with any statements, as that may have had a negative effect on his election campaign and be used by Republican candidate John McCain."

After the U.S. elections, President-elect Obama has appointed Robert Malley as a senior foreign policy adviser. Malley, who served as an “informal adviser” to the Obama campaign, was reportedly forced to sever his ties with the campaign six months ago, when The Times of London reported that he was meeting with Hamas representatives on a regular basis.

Jesse Jackson's predicament of a change in US policy towards Israel in particular and the Middle East in general, is starting to take shape....A shape of another monster (?)