NYC Letter: De Mortuis Nihil Nisi Vere

We won't pretend to the Christian enjoinment of charity toward the little chairman. He's dead. He took his sweet time. And the world is a better place on his departure. If death does not cheat justice, then even now Mr. Arafat is enjoying the desserts he avoided time and again in life.

Muhammad Abdul Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, was an Egyptian by birth and a Palestinian by invention. (Mr. Arafat claimed Jersualem as his birthplace.) The Guardian has written a gagging valentine of an obituary that reduces the little chairman to something on the order of an inept middle-manager who had greatness thrust upon him but never acquired the knack for greatness.

There's worse than this over at the NYT where Jimmy Carter apotheosizes the little chairman. You'll have to get the link from LGF, because we are loath to register with the NYT. It just feels dirty.

But you can't beat the French for the feckless grovel:

"I have come to bow before president Yasser Arafat and pay him a final homage,” he said after the 25-minute visit.

(Twenty-five minutes? Arafat was dead. How long does it take secular Jack to contemplate Mr. Arafat in the nothingness of a French hereafter?)

When Mr. Reagan died, Jack sent an errand boy, M. Barnier.

The French get no thanks for the bother of giving the little chairman a bed in which to expire:

Ashraf al-Kurdi, who was a friend and doctor to the Palestinian leader for 25 years, also said he was disappointed in the care French doctors gave Mr Arafat.

"They did not care even to phone me and ask for his medical history," Dr Kurdi said in a telephone interview from his home in Jordan.

"They did not even phone. I am very disappointed in their care for him, and I cannot understand this lack of an explanation for his death.

"As is the case with any man who dies of unexplained causes, I feel an autopsy is needed."

Christian Estripeau, the medical director at the Paris military hospital where Mr Arafat died Thursday, said French law barred him from responding to the charge that care was lacking.

It is distressing to see the world turn out in solemnity to prop up a fraud that except for the most hapless Palestinians, was universally, if secretly, detested. Of this list of dignitaries only Bahrain, Brazil, Kuwait, Latvia, and the United States -- and perhaps Russia -- have properly relegated its representation. It should be noted that the French representation rates Mr. Arafat pari passu with Mr. Reagan -- Mr. Arafat and his crew having done so much for France.

As is fitting, Mr. Arafat's funeral took on the atmosphere of an Arab bazaar where solemn European dignitaries with hankies at the ready were elbowed aside by Islamic big shots. The German delegation had the security fence closed in its face and not one European managed to participate in the central funeral service. Such a shame and everybody all dressed up. (Hat tip: LGF) Oh, and no little people need apply:

Unusually for the funeral of an Arab leader, ordinary people will not be able to take part in the procession, apparently for fear that too many would come out to show their respect.

To speak plainly Mr. Arafat was a terrorist, a pathological liar, a failed politician, and a defalcator of the pitiable Palestinian public purse. This is not name-calling, these are the career highlights of his CV. Here is some of the little chairman's handiwork.

We do not intend to assay here what others have already done better. We are delighted Mr. Arafat is gone and we look forward to the remnants of his violent legacy slitting each other up a treat.

Posted by Damian at November 12, 2004 05:18 PM