Terrorist Admits Arafat was Behind Intifada
Back in Abu Amar’s day [the nom de guerre of Yasser Arafat], we had a plan, there was a strategy, and we would carry his orders…Everything that was done in the intifada was done according to Arafat’s instructions, but he didn’t need to tell us the things explicitly. We understood his message.
This candid statement by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terrorist Zakariya Zubeidi in an interview appearing in Ha’aretz (April 4, 2008) attests to the direct involvement of former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in the campaign of violence that erupted in September 2000 and lasted for four years.
Zubeidi’s confession that “we failed entirely” contrasts with the position, advocated by some of Israel’s critics, that the terror campaign could not be contained by steadfast application of tough measures. According to Zubeidi,
We, the activists, paid the heavy price. We’ve had family members killed, friends. They demolished our homes and we have no way of earning a living. And what is the result? Zero. Simply zero.
Zubeidi takes the position that Israel and the West have to do more to help Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and threatens that unless a state is established soon there will be war between Palestinian factions. But his comments also suggest that the current government may be irremediably weak, raising questions over the wisdom of the unprecedented financial support that the US, EU and Israeli government have committed to propping it up.
When considering Zubeidi’s comments, it is important to keep in mind that he is a terrorist whose sincerity is suspect and motives for speaking out opportunistic. But nevertheless, his frank assessment of the failure of the intifada and Yasir Arafat’s role in fomenting and directing it, exposes the naivete and knavery of those like internationally reknowned writers, Bao Dei, Juan Guytisolo, the committee that selected Arafat for the Nobel Peace prize and BBC journalist Barbara Plett, who fawned over the former Palestinian leader and waxed poetic over his virtues.
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