Yasser Arafat About some people there seems to be

About some people there seems to be no middle ground of opinion: They are considered to be either demons or heroes. It should not be surprising that there is such polarization one way or the other, because indeed some people are so much better or worse than the average person, and as objects for study they are less than fascinating. The presence of excessive amounts of good or evil in a person is not on the face of it that interesting. Far more interesting are those figures from history that polarize opinion both ways, about whom it is alleged that they are both demons and angels, put here on earth to save us all, or destroy us all. Yasser Arafat - president of the Palestinian Authority from 1996 to the present, chair of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 to the present, and a Nobel laureate who has led the Palestinian people in their efforts for statehood - is one such person, and this paper examines his life, the historical circumstances that have brought him to power, the ways in which his personal strengths and weaknesses have informed the ongoing struggles in the Middle East and continue to do so, and what role he may play in the future of the ever-shifting and usually violent world of Middle Eastern politics.

Historical Background and Personal Strengths and Weaknesses

Yasser Arafat (his first name is also often transliterated into English as "Yasir") was born in 1929 as Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, the sixth of seven children

Related Essays

Israeli - Palestinian Conflicts .... Israel's desire to have a safe State for its people. .... to the Palestinians...a debt that must at some point be .... in 1967 and was headed by Yasser Arafat until his .... (1531 6 )

US Marines in Beirut in 1982 .... Beirut was the negotiation with Yasser Arafat and the .... these negotiations, which ended with Arafat agreeing to .... military presence did have some positive effect .... (3694 15 )

The Middle East .... invaded, chasing PLO leader Yasser Arafat to Tunisia .... people and maybe achieve some semblance of .... Palestinian authority, either because Arafat changes policies .... (1794 7 )

The US and the UK .... Reporting that Yasser Arafat recently declared that "time is running .... The reason: "they believe Mr. Arafat would win .... and its ramifications explored in some detail .... (4470 18 )

"Special Relationship" Between the US & UK .... Reporting that Yasser Arafat recently declared that "time is running .... The reason: "they believe Mr. Arafat would win .... and its ramifications explored in some detail .... (4470 18 )

Arab League's declaration, the United Nations invited Arafat to address its General Assembly. In an infamous gesture, Arafat spoke to the assembly with a pistol strapped to his hip. He called for the creation of a Palestinian state and promised a violent response if the call went unheeded. Several years of PLO assassinations, hijackings, and bombings followed, gaining the PLO and Arafat international prominence (Hart, 1997, p. 51). For most of the 1970s, Arafat was based in Beirut, Lebanon, from which his guerrillas attacked Israel and where he oversaw an enormous bureaucracy that provided social welfare services to Palestinian refugees. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon to stop the PLO's attacks. Arafat was forced to flee again, this time to Tunis, Tunisia. Following this defeat his power was deeply diminished, and many observers believed his leadership was in danger. Arafat, however, remained in power and in 1988 renounced military opposition to Israel and recognized Israel as a legitimate state. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and prompted the Persian Gulf War of 1991, Arafat publicly endorsed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, in part because Hussein likened Iraq's "liberation" of Kuwait to the Palestinian goal of "liberating" Isr

Category: People - Y