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Indict Arafat

(Wall Street Journal) Robert L. Pollock - President Bush's characteristically blunt assignment of responsibility for the Gaza strip bombing that killed three Americans Wednesday - he blamed Yasser Arafat - was right on the mark. There is no doubt that Arafat's policy has been one of sheltering and encouraging fellow terrorists. Israel defends the security barrier it is building by pointing out that next to no suicide bombers emerge from Gaza, which is already contained. But surely the more salient fact is that next to no suicide bombers emerged from anywhere before Arafat's arrival in 1994. In fact, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians worked in Israel without incident. Arafat is the problem; getting rid of him should be the solution of first resort. If Israel is going to run the risk of martyring Arafat, it might as well stand Europe's cynical posturing about the rule of law on its head by indicting and trying the man in an Israeli courtroom. Imagine it: the world's attention focused on decades' worth of documents and communications intercepts linking Arafat to numerous and horrific acts of murder. And what better way for Israel to make the point that "international law" does not oblige it to let the Palestinians bomb their way to a state?
2003-10-17 00:00:00
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