All that is left for the Palestinians are the "symbols" of their Cause. They are: the olive branch, the orange orchards, the Dome of the Rock, the al-Aqsa Mosque, and Yasser Arafat. This why those living in the Occupied Territories and the Diaspora labeled the dying leader as the "last standing wall" of Palestine. The "state," which they had dreamt of for decades, has been systematically destroyed by Ariel Sharon since 2000, and so has Greater Palestine. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA), barricaded from outside and divided from within, has also crumbled as chaos prevails in the Occupied Territories. Whether the world likes it or not, Yasser Arafat has become a symbol for the Palestinians, a great legend to those who have accompanied his career since its inception on January 1, 1965. A legend of inflated proportions perhaps, but a legend nevertheless due to the magnitude of the cause he represents, which has become synonymous with his name and image. To most of the world, Abu Ammar was Mr Palestine for the better part of the 20th century. Although he was highly criticized by Arab radicals for the Oslo Peace Accord in 1993, Arafat argued that at least, the Palestinians had returned home from the Diaspora, earned international recognition for Palestine, and restored their country, forgotten for so long, into the world consciousness. They returned home, to wage a battle from inside Palestine, after it became clear that liberating Palestine could not be done from the sick Arab environment that surrounds it. "Palestine would only be liberated by the Palestinians themselves" were the famed words of Yasser Arafat, and today, as they wage a lonely battle on their own, without their leader, his words cannot be more true.

Oslo restored Palestine to the map of the world. Maybe it was not historic Palestine, but it was Palestine, nevertheless. The Palestinians, who for long could not travel and had to wait for hours of cross-examination at airports, were issued local Palestinian National Authority passports, and could now fly from their own Palestinian airport in Gaza. They earned a home to live in, a civil service to join, a police force to bring order to their lives, a government to resort to, and a leader to follow. Now, the Palestinians, thanks to Arafat, had a parliament, a constitution, an independent judiciary, a social security program, along with their own schools and national universities. The reason all of that crumbled was due to Sharon's madness, not Arafat's weakness. Arafat did for the Palestinians what Zionism did for the Jews after World War II; bring them out from the obscurity and persecution of the 1950s, from the misery of the ghettos (or refugee camps) into the world order as key players in international affairs. True, he had his mistakes but as he departs the political stage today, the world holds its breathe at an uncertain future for the Palestinians from after him.

For 40 years, Arafat was the center of gravity in Palestinian politics. Power went where Arafat was: be it Amman, Beirut, Tunis, or Ramallah. Everybody is to blame for Arafat's death, Israel, the USA, and us, the people of the Arab World who were so weak, and insignificant, that we allowed him, the constitutionally elected president of the Palestinians (ostensibly our number one cause) to be confined to arrest since December 2001, while we were unwilling and unable to save him, or save his people from Sharon's war machine. Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush can be held directly responsible for Arafat's slow death, since both men worked relentlessly against the Palestinian leader since 2001. In December 2001, at the start of Arafat's siege, Bush met with a group of Jewish donors to the Republican Party, and remarked: "I would have done exactly what Sharon is doing!" Shortly afterwards, he was quoted in Yediot Aharanot saying that Arafat "was a weak leader whose regime will collapse." His envoy to the Middle East Anthony Zenni was as rude as his master, showing Arafat, the leader of the Palestinians, little respect and saying: "In my entire career, I have never encountered such a lack of credibility!" Sharon was rude enough to remark: "I am sorry I did not kill him in Beirut." The Israeli public are also responsible, since they voted for Sharon, then restored confidence in him, and in a poll conducted in 2002 by Yediot Aharanot, 53% of them voted for Arafat's disposal, and 24% voted for his assassination. The Israelis were right, however, when they said that Arafat never wanted peace. He didn't, but regional circumstances prevented him from remaining a revolutionary all of his life, and that is why he had to become a part-time peacemaker. Arafat wanted his people to return to Palestine, regardless of the means, and he achieved that through Oslo.

In 1979, Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's died, and it was said that he would continue to rule Pakistan from the grave, and this is so true today for Yasser Arafat. The skills that Arafat combined, which endeared him to his people and allowed him survival for so long, are rare, and might never be found in a new Palestinian leader. Or at least, it would take another generation to produce a leader which such magnitude and legitimacy. As early as 1953, Arafat, head of the student union in Cairo, approached Egypt's new President Mohammad Nagiub, and presented him with a memorandum, written in Palestinian blood, written by the Palestinian students saying: "Do not forget Palestine!" That has been his one constant motto ever since. In 1988, an American journalist described Arafat saying that he was born, "with the cunning of a bazaar merchant, a 'now you see it-now you don't' hands of a magician, the balance of a tightrope walker, and most importantly, the skin of a chameleon which took on whatever political colors were in season." Arafat put on many faces since 1965. In 1965-1993, he was the revolutionary leader and fiery orator. He was the man who motivated his men in combat, led them at the Karameh battle in 1968, then showed up at the General Assembly of the UN in 1974 with the famed phrase: "I come to you carrying an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand!" He was the Che Guevara of the Arab World. He dabbled with men like Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, and Gamal Abd al-Nasser. In 1993, he was the peacemaker, the frequent guest at the White House, and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize. His milieu now became Bill Clinton, John Major, Nelson Mandela, and Jacques Chirac. He showed up at the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin, renounced attacks against civilians, and appeared to the world as a man of peace. In 1994-2000, he was the international statesman, and Arab head of state, becoming an honored guest of world leaders like Boris Yeltsin, and Pope John Paul II. In 2000-2004, he was symbol of state and resistance, and since December 2001, the victim of Ariel Sharon's atrocities. He lived the last 30 months of his life in a battered compound in deplorable conditions, with a terrible sewage system, no clean air, often no electricity, and a room that would barely fit for servants of his fellow Arab leaders. A Palestinian friend from Fateh confirmed that Israel has a drilling machine parked next to Arafat's office in Ramallah, which begins to drill at midnight, creating a terrible noise to prevent him from sleeping properly. Arafat, the man of many faces, endured all of that, but continued, until we last saw him boarding a Jordanian chopper and heading to Paris, via Amman, to play the magician. This is the one act he has put on constantly since 1965. He made his people view the world through a magical crystal ball, his crystal ball, that was filled with illusions—and life without illusions is unbearable, especially if  people are living under occupation. He kept their spirits up, inspiring them with courage and motivation, and the constant promise that statehood was attainable. He always appeared defiant, with a revolver by his side. He always appeared busy, constantly traveling around, showing up in world capitals, meeting with international leaders to promote the Cause. Never in his life was Arafat depicted as a lazy or passive leader. He always appeared optimistic and cheerful with his catchy "V" sign and the phrases, "No wind shakes the great mountain." If not today then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then next year—or sometime soon, he promised, a Palestinian State would be created, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Arafat today is preparing to leave the scene once again, as he did in Jordan in 1970, and Beirut in 1982. A Palestinian observer remembered: "As Arafat turned about to leave, I sobbed my heart out as the women threw rice in the last gesture of farewell. I cried for our lost Arab nationalism, and indifference of the Arab World, and the thought of the Israelis at Beirut Airport." At the time, with no Palestine in sight, and battles raging all over Lebanon, West Beirut might as well have been Jerusalem for Yasser Arafat. Here he was, leaving it in defeat while the Arab World was watching in defeat, cursing his blunders yet weeping for his fate. The New York Times reporter Thomas Friedman described the event saying: "The PLO itself was never the quite the same after it quiet Lebanon. And neither for that matter was the Arab World. Something in the Arab World died on August 30, 1982," the day Arafat left Beirut. Of course, Arafat has his faults in Lebanon. Prime among them is that he was, and still is, a brilliant corruptor, who corrupted all those around him, with what Lebanon had to offer. He made his aides in Beirut so corrupt that they began waging the infamous, "alternate homeland" phrase, with reference to Lebanon. He himself however, is not corrupt. This is quiet clear from the modest lifestyle that he leads and the less-than-luxurious home he has been living in since 2001, or the villa he lived in Gaza, prior to his siege. Even in Tunis, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, Arafat was never a lavish spender. His other great fault is that he is one of the worst military leaders of the Arab World, having suffered nothing but defeat since 1965. One might ask in conclusion: what has Arafat achieved now for the Palestinians? Hasn't he led them from one military defeat to the next? The Palestinians were defeated by Jordan in 1970, by Israel in 1982, by Syria in 1983, and again, by the Israelis today, as the intifada is shifting in Israel's favor. How is it that this man transferred every military defeat into victory? Why is it that they are clinging on to this aged and ailing man, who has achieved nothing but military defeat for them since 1965? Again, to quote Friedman, "nothing sticks to Yasser Arafat - no bullets, no scandals, no war, and most important of all, no defeat!"

The Arab street today is divided over Yasser Arafat, unlike the Palestinian one, with some praising his heroism over a 40-year period, while others are claiming that he "sold out" to the Israelis. I ask these Arabs: who of your leaders has not sold out to the Israelis? And for the sake of argument, let us pretend that he sold out, and signed a peace with Israel in 1993, but that was only because he faced an Arab command that was everything but supportive of his cause since 1965. A report published in David Pryce-Jones book The Closed Circle shows that in the years 1967-1987, an estimated 35,000 Palestinians were killed at the hands of the Arab forces; either in Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, or at the hands of rivaling Palestinian militias. In Jordan alone, Arafat was to remark many years later, King Husayn killed 25,000 Palestinians. Meanwhile, during this same 20-year period, only 4,464 Israelis were killed by the Arabs in the wars of 1967, 1973, and 1982 combined. The survivor Yasser Arafat escaped several strokes, an airplane crash in Libya in 1992, and 13 assassination attempts by Israeli intelligence, along with various ones by hostile Palestinian groups, Jordanian commandos, Syrian troops, and Maronite militias. Practically everyone in the region tried killing Yasser Arafat at one point! The leaders of Kuwait expelled 400.000 Palestinians in 1991, to punish Arafat's alliance with Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War. Surely, Arafat did not love the mad Iraqi leader, but Saddam was a fervent supporter of the Palestinian Cause. When Arab money began to dry up, he promised to finance the first intifada, with $50 million cash, and $4 million per month. Arafat would have allied himself with the devil for the sake of Palestine. Falling in line with the Kuwaitis was Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi of Libya, who had done his share of harm to the Palestinians when he stopped sending them money in 1978 because Arafat refused to assassinate leading Libyan dissidents in exile. Then, in 1995, Qaddafi expelled 30,000 Palestinians from Libya, to object to Oslo. This same anti-Oslo leader was the man who took giant steps to cuddle up to the USA in 2004. How could Arafat maneuver in such an un-healthy Arab environment?

To explain Arafat more clearly to his critics, I will recount the following story from Thomas Friedman's classic From Beirut to Jerusalem. On October 9, 1982, Arafat showed up in Amman in his first post-Lebanon appearance to address a group of Palestinians. According to every rule in the book of politics, Yasser Arafat was politically finished, having suffered so much military defeat in Jordan in 1970, and in Lebanon, at the hands of the Christians, the Syrians, and the Israelis, in 1979-1982. Friedman described the gathering saying: "What I remembered most was that they just wanted to touch him. Arafat was like a rock star after a concert and the Palestinians were grabbing at his clothes as he ran a gauntlet of flying hands and arms. What was all this about? Arafat was supposed to be finished? What were the Palestinians touching? I think they were touching themselves, in a way, making sure that they were still there, still alive, and still visible to the rest of the world!"  For the better part of his career, Arafat was a symbol of Palestinian existence. Whenever he faced a dilemma, observers would believe him to be finished, and announce, just as I had mistakenly done frequently, his political obituary. Then, apparently with superhuman strength, Arafat would bounce back to life, symbolizing the Palestinian determination not to be forgotten and not to have the cause erased. Sadly though, that situation has come to an end, as the Palestinians, who Arafat always coined "the superhuman peoples" say farewell to their great leader. The Middle East will never be the same without him.

Damascus, Syria.
November 5, 2004.