Alan Hart, in Arafat: Terrorist or Peacemaker?, presents a well-balanced portrait of the Arab leader Yasser Arafat, demonstrating convincingly that he was indeed once a terrorist, using methods of terror to advance what he believed was a just cause, but who then became a true peacemaker. The author does not pretend to argue his case with an eye for objectivity, but instead is dedicated to urging the Americans to use their clout with Israel to persuade that nation to deal with Arafat and to understand the beliefs behind his tactics of the past. In any case, Hart is convinced (and gives the reader a powerful argument to share that convincement) that Arafat must be respected as a major player in any peace which emerges in the Middle East. His book is particularly relevant today as the peace process inches forward between the Palestinians and Israel, and as Arafat continues to play an essential role in that process.
The author's biases must be noted. He refers to "Zionist propaganda" (7) in making the argument that Israel has to date been able to control much public opinion around the world. He suggests that it is time that Arafat and his arguments, having to do both with past and present, have a fair hearing. It is important to note that Hart's arguments have found support in the decade since the publication of this book. Arafat has proved to be a peacemaker, whatever his terrorist activities have been in the past. The peace process as it now stands in the mid-1990s could not have moved along as far as they have without Arafat's presence and without his having lived up to the status of peacemaker granted him by Hart.
Hart roots his study of Arafat in the need for justice for the Palestinians and in the wrongs done those people throughout history. In this context, Hart argues that Arafat has long been a dedicated activist in the Palestinian cause he so deeply believes in:
Yasser Arafat was just about twenty-one when he commit...