The Murder Of Arafat

If Ariel Sharon succeeds in murdering Yasser Arafat, as he wants to, thePalestinian leader will remain in the collective memory of his people, and thewhole Arab world, like Moses in Jewish memory.

Moses rebelled against Egyptian oppression, led his people forth from"the house of bondage", led them for 40 years in the desert, made anew people out of them and brought them to the threshold of the Promised Land.He did not enter the land itself – God only showed it to him from afar. Thatwill be told about Arafat, too, if he becomes a martyr now.

Moses is, of course, a mythological figure. No serious scholar in the worldbelieved that the exodus from Egypt really happened. Experts explain that itcould not have taken place at all. But that is not really important: themythological Moses shaped the consciousness of the Jewish people more than anyflesh-and-blood leader of a nomad tribe in the desert could have done.

The Haggada, the book read on Passover's eve by almost every Jewish familythroughout the world, commands us to feel as if we ourselves had set forth fromEgypt. The basic Jewish ethos is built on this premise. The text of TenCommandments in Deuteronomium 5 explains why on the holy Sabbath the servantsand slaves must be allowed to rest, too: "Remember that thou wast a slavein the land of Egypt."

In the new myth that is being born before our eyes, Sharon is the Pharaoh andwe are the ancient Egyptians. In the story about the Exodus, the Bible lets Godsay: "I have hardened (Pharaoh's) heart and the heart of hisservants." After every calamity that befell him, Pharaoh broke his promiseto free the Israelites. Why? What was God's purpose? He wanted the Israelites tobecome hardened by the hardship, before they started on their long march. Thisis what is happening to the Palestinians now.

So what will happen if an Israeli bullet kills Arafat now? After Moses, nosecond Moses appeared, but Jehosuah, the merciless warrior who committedgenocide. (This, by the way, is also a myth. All serious scholars believe thatthis holy genocide never actually happened.) After Arafat, the heir will not beAbu-this or Abu-that. It will be Brother Kalachnikoff – like the song we usedto sing in our youth, during the fight against the British occupation:"Give the floor to Comrade Parabellum, Give the floor to ComradeTommy-gun." Parabellum was a pistol, tommy-gun a sub-machine-gun.

There will be no Palestinian Quisling – and if a candidate would be found,he would be killed the next day, like Sharon's Lebanese Quisling, Bashir Jumail.Dozens of local guerilla leaders will take over, and they will start a campaignof revenge that may go on for many years, not only in the country, butthroughout the world. The life of every Israeli will become hell, all the worldwill become a Jerusalem-style Ben-Yehuda street. No Israeli embassy, noairplane, no tourist will be safe.

The dead Arafat will be by far more dangerous than the living Aarafat. Theliving Arafat is able and willing to make peace. The dead Arafat can not. Hewill eternalize the conflict.

In our days, historians wonder what folly took possession of the Jewishpeople 1930 years ago, causing them to start a hopeless rebellion against theRoman empire and bringing utter destruction upon the Jewish commonwealth inPalestine. A hundred years from now, historians will ask themselves what follytook possession of this people, causing it to elect Sharon, a bloody person whohas not done anything in life apart from shedding blood and set up settlements. What folly took possession of this people, causing it to prefer settlements andsome territories to peace and conciliation? And how does this people remainindifferent, when the whole Arab world offers it – perhaps for the last time!– real peace and normal relations, and the public is listening to the sillyranting of politicians and commentators, who ridicule the offer and cheer Sharonon, at the start of a bloody campaign worse than any one before?

History remembers the few, who warned the people of the disaster that isbound to follow if they listen to the Zealots. History will remember us, the fewwho are warning the people now of the disaster that will befall all of us, if wefollow Sharon and his gang. Let's hope that our voices will be heard in time, sothat we can start on a new road.

If Arafat will be murdered, it will be the moment of no return.