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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 29-Apr-08
Yasser Arafat in 2002: "We used to call Jews our cousins"

Web Log - April, 2008

Yasser Arafat in 2002: "We used to call Jews our cousins"

In an interview replayed on CNN on Sunday, originally broadcast on May 12, 2002, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat expressed great affection for the Jews:

Yasser Arafat, May 12, 2002 <font face=Arial size=-2>(Source: CNN)</font>

Yasser Arafat, May 12, 2002 (Source: CNN)

"When I was a small boy, I used to play side by side -- I was living with my uncle in Jerusalem, my uncle Aria (ph), and I used to go -- as a small boy to play with the Jews in the Jewish quarter, and they used to come to play with me in my area. You forgot this? I don't forget. I was a small boy, but it's still in my mind. Historically, we were living together. We never -- do you know that until now we don't call them Jews? Do you know what we call them? Our cousins. Still, it is a popular pronounce (ph). We never say Jews. We say he is one of our cousins. Because historically, we are cousins."

Western governments considered Yasser Arafat to be a terrorist.

Was Arafat playing to the cameras? Probably.

But were Arafat's emotions genuine? I believe so.

Arafat was born in 1930, so when he talks about playing with Jews as a small boy, he's talking about something like 1935. That was long before WW II, and long before the partitioning of Palestine.

In fact, Jews and Arabs did get along for centuries. Things began to change because of anti-Semitism in Russia and Europe that caused Jewish migration to the Palestine area. The migration turned into a flood in the 1930s, when Hitler came to power.

The violence began with rock-throwing, and only became full-scale genocidal warfare between Arabs and Jews when Palestine was partitioned and the state of Israel was created in 1948.

Arafat lived survived that horrible war and, like almost all survivors of generational Crisis wars, vowed that he would do anything possible to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again. The same was true of Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister and Arafat's counterpart.

A year after the interview, on May 1, 2003, the Mideast Roadmap to Peace was announced by the Bush administration and other Western governments. It called for side-by-side Jewish and Palestinian states by 2005. Obviously that never happened.

When the plan was announced, I wrote the following:

"There's an incredible irony going on in the Mideast today, in that the leaders of two opposing sides are, respectively, Ariel Sharon and Yassir Arafat.

These two men hate each other, but they're the ones cooperating with each other (consciously or not) to prevent a major Mideast conflagration. Both of them remember the wars of the 1940s, and neither of them wants to see anything like that happen again. And it won't happen again, as long as both of these men are in charge.

The disappearance of these two men will be part of an overall generational change in the Mideast that will lead to a major conflagration within a few years. It's possible that the disappearance of Arafat alone will trigger a war, just as the election of Lincoln ignited the American Civil War. (It's currently American policy to get rid of Arafat. My response is this: Be careful what you wish for.)"

Seeing this old Arafat interview again brings back memories of what was happening in 2003. The West was furious at Arafat, blaming him for preventing blocking any peace plan from being implemented. In those days, the common wisdom was that when Arafat was gone from the scene, then a peace plan would go forward.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, that's total nonsense. Arafat wasn't blocking a peace plan. Arafat was keeping the younger Palestinian generations from exploding. Yes, Arafat was a terrorist, but from his point of view, an occasional terrorist act was the lesser evil, compared to a full-scale genocidal war, refighting the war of the late 1940s.

<i>New York Post</i> front page, 11-Nov-2004

New York Post front page, 11-Nov-2004

Arafat died in November, 2004, and the West rejoiced, believing that the Roadmap to Peace could finally be implemented. Instead, things have gone from bad to worse in the Palestinian territories, especially Gaza. Violent deaths are a daily occurrence, as are missiles launched from Gaza into Israeli towns.

Few people today would doubt that the Mideast is sliding toward a major war. The death of Yasser Arafat, the man who called Jews his "cousins," had exactly the opposite effect that Western governments expected. That's why I wrote in my May 1, 2003, article quoted above: "Be careful what you wish for." (29-Apr-08) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 29-Apr-08 Yasser Arafat in 2002: "We used to call Jews our cousins"

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 29-Apr-08
Yasser Arafat in 2002: "We used to call Jews our cousins"