Originally posted by vorticon
gonna have to disagree with you on the last part, if it wasnt for arafat there wouldnt be ANY talk of a palestinian state.
Quite the opposite. I think that simply by virtue of who he was, Arafat set his cause back immeasurably. The Israelis will never respect a terrorist, not when he is the leader of a splinter cell and even moreso when he is the leader of a country. As far as the Israelis saw it, his credability as a leader of people was forever shot because of his past, and by association, so the credability of the Palestinian state. Anybody with decent diplomacy skills and a decided lack of association with extremist groups would have been a better candidate, and ultimately, better for their cause. he would have also been pretty hard to find given the region in question.
Arafat's only real accomplishments were helping to galavanize the rift between Judiasm and Islam, and prolonging the Intifada--for which I'm sure many are most greatful.
As far as comparing him to Hitler and Stalin, had Arafat the material and manpower, he might have done a whole lot more damage. Thankfully he didn't.
May he burn in hell.
BTW: 72 virgins spread out over all of eternity is actually pretty piss-poor when you think about it.
