After Arafat

WSJ.com - After Arafat: "We lack the space to record all of the blood on Arafat's hands, but the highlights include the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the 1973 murder of two American diplomats in Sudan, the 1974 killing of two dozen Israeli schoolchildren in Maalot, and the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro in which Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly American in a wheelchair, was thrown overboard. His more recent legacy is the suicide bomber, turning young Palestinians into weapons targeting civilians. Over the years, Arafat has been responsible for killing far more Palestinians than Israelis, especially any 'moderates' who dared to promote a non-terrorist strategy.

Especially on the Western left, terrorism was seen as a justifiable strategy of groups seeking national liberation, and so Arafat became the Arab Che Guevara, the kaffiyeh substituting for the beret.

In 1974, he turned up at the United Nations with an empty holster at his hip, announcing, "I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun." He was showered with honors, including the Nobel Peace Prize, and was feted around the word, especially in Paris. It speaks volumes about France's Arab predicament that Jacques Chirac paid a visit to Arafat's hospital bed Thursday. The French President felt obliged either by domestic politics or his own world view to honor one of the 20th-century's great killers.

It is difficult to assess what comes next for the Palestinians. The scenarios range from civil war -- Hamas against PLO, various PLO factions against each other, local clans against the "Tunisians" (the Fatah members who came with Arafat from Tunisia) -- to a relatively smooth transition to a new leader. But for any transition to succeed it will have to shed the system of corruption and perpetual terror that Arafat created.

Nonetheless, after years of blood and hopeless talk, the prospects for Mideast peace are better than at any time since Oslo in the early 1990s. Having watched Israel's democracy flourish next door and seeing events in Iraq and Afghanistan, some brave Palestinians may see this as the time to come forward. Arafat's death will at least make that possible."