Ediblog.com
Poor Marwan!
By Ariel Natan Pasko
Poor Marwan Barghouti. While Yasser Arafat gets thousands to rally at
the Mukatah in Ramallah, after Israel "threatened" to
"remove" him; while Arafat gets political leaders worldwide to
call on Israel to leave him alone; while Arafat gets all 15 members of
the UN Security Council to pressure Israel not to expel him; Marwan
languishes in an Israeli prison. It just isn't fair.
A member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Marwan Barghouti
founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. As leader of the Fatah-Tanzim
terrorist organization, Barghouti is on trial for overseeing dozens of
terror attacks and direct responsibility for at least 14 murders.
Israeli forces captured Barghouti in April 2002. He was arrested,
together with his nephew, in a building only 500 meters from Arafat's
Mukatah compound. His nephew, Ahmed Barghouti, received thirteen life
sentences in July by the Ofer Military Court, for his part in the
terrorist murder of 12 Israelis and the wounding of dozens of others.
Marwan is still in the trial stage.
In addition to his terrorist exploits, Marwan Barghouti has made
statements such as, "After we attain a Palestinian state [in Judea
and Samaria], there will be greater things for which to strive...There
is no room for more than one state between the Jordan and the
Mediterranean." Nothing particularly radical in comparison to what
Yasser Arafat has said or done for years. Yet Arafat - as head of Fatah
- who personally authorized many funds later used by Barghouti for
terror attacks, isn't being tried. Israel can't even
"threaten" to expel him.
Of course, Arafat can count among his supporters, Israeli Labor Party
leader and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres and much of the Labor
Party leadership, the two Yossis - Beilin and Sarid - and ultra-leftist
leader Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom (the peace bloc). In defiance of the
Israeli Army ban on entering PA autonomous areas, radical left-wing
activists led by Uri Avnery joined together with Arabs in a show of
support for Arafat. The supporters visited with Arafat in his Mukatah
headquarters in Ramallah, vowing to act as human shields against Israeli
forces, should they attempt to harm him. Marwan can't count on that type
of support from such heavy-hitters on the Israeli left. Poor Marwan.
And while I'm at it, I might as well mention the wheel chair bound Hamas
"spiritual" leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who just recently
dodged an Israeli assassination attempt. Why go after him? It just isn't
fair. Arafat continues to avoid trial or assassination, though he has a
much longer record of killing Jews than Barghouti and Yassin combined,
and poor Sheikh Yassin almost bites it. Maybe an old gray religiously
fanatical paraplegic terrorist just doesn't garner sympathy on the world
stage, as an old gray unshaven dumpy little terrorist like Arafat.
Maybe it's Arafat's support from people like Peres, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, former US President Jimmy Carter, French President Jacques
Chirac and Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, European Union
Foreign Minister Javier Solana, and other world leaders. The Spanish
Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said that Spain considered Arafat part of
the "solution" to the conflict in the Middle East. Even the US
warned Israel not to harm Arafat.
But why? Why should small fry like Barghouti, Yassin, Rantisi, Abu
Shanab, and others get killed or incarcerated, while the grand-daddy of
them all, founder of modern-day terrorism, Yasser Arafat still walks
free on the world stage of politics?
Poor Marwan, if I were him -thank G-D I'm not - I'd be asking just such
a question. It just isn't fair.
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in describing the recent Israeli
Security Cabinet's decision to "remove" Arafat, said that
"killing [Arafat] is definitely one of the options" under
consideration by the Israeli government. "We are trying to
eliminate all the heads of terror, and Arafat is one of the heads of
terror," Olmert told Israel Radio. "In my eyes, from a moral
point of view, this is no different from killing others who were
involved in acts of terror." But Marwan still languishes in prison
and Hamas leaders still walk in fear of missile attack, while Arafat is
defended by the world. It just isn't fair!
P.S. They should all be tried or killed. That includes, all the
leadership of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, the DFLP, Fatah and it's
"babies" - the Tanzim and Al-Aqsa Brigades - the current and
former Palestinian Authority Cabinets, and all the members of the
Palestinian Legislative Council. Last but not least (you thought I might
forget him?) Chief Terrorist Yasser Arafat, who should be brought to
Jerusalem, tried, and hung like Nazi leader Adolph Eichmann was. Rafi
Eitan, anti-terrorism expert, advisor to Israeli prime ministers, and
the senior Mossad officer who was in charge of the Eichmann capture in
1960, said the same thing recently, "Arafat is a war criminal. We
should take him to court and try him for war crimes...Bring him to
Jerusalem, like Eichmann." Maybe after watching his execution on
worldwide television, some of his supporters might have second thoughts
about helping Judeo-pathic serial mass murderers in the future. Or, then
again, maybe Israel should charge them as his accomplices!