Goodbye President Arafat

Yasser Arafat is gone at last, laid to rest amid a scene that probably made a number of Marines happy that they were in a relatively safe place like Fallujah instead of Ramallah.

There is little question that the late president placed his own interests first, those of his people second, and all other concerns a distant last. That he was able to manipulate sentiment enough to lay claim to a Nobel Peace Prize is evidence that he was a Player of the highest order - and a quite successful one at that. Whether he ever had any interest in achieving a sustainable peace with Israel is open to debate, though that debate is one in which both sides come to the table with unshakable convictions firmly in place.

Israel - you must now exhibit the courage to permit the Palestinian people to elect a leader of their own choosing, not merely one of your anointing. Further, you must permit that leader to lead. Setting unrealistic and unachievable demands, preventing those demands from being fulfilled, then administering punishment for the refusal to comply with your directives can not continue.

Palestine - you also bear a burden of responsibility to choose leadership that will look towards tomorrow and provide a future. Fighting a fifty year old war that cannot be won will only ensure that several additional generations suffer the same hopelessness now endured.

The past has shaped the present. That does not mean that everyone is locked into an immutable future. The present is ever an opportunity to shape a past that has led to a broader and brighter spectrum of possibilities than has so far been achieved.