Many speak of the unabashed corruption of Arafat and his government, manly the misappropriation of money. The dude has plenty of supporters throughout the world, and they sent him plenty of money, allegedly for the Palestinian people, to help them get out of poverty and such. However, no matter how much money that Arafat collected that was supposed to go to the palestinian people, the people always stayed in poverty, while Arafat got very, very rich from it, one of the things that will come out of his death will be a fight over his fortune, which is estimated to be worth many billions of dollars. The dude was a fuckin' billionaire while the people that he supposedly wanted to help lived in squalor year after year. Many feel that he did not go through with things all the way because that would have interrupted his money train and he would not have been able to stash away so much money and that he did not want that, so he turned everything down for that reason. Others feel that he chickened out all the time because he was afraid that if he made peace with Israel, that he would be assassinated like Anwar El Sadat, the President of Egypt back in the 1970's, was after he made peace with Israel. He was assassinated by his own people as he watched a military parade, and it was made clear that this happened solely because he made peace with Israel. So many feel that Arafat did not make a deal because he was afraid of meeting the same fate, that he remembered how he approved of Sadat's assassination publicly after it happened, and said how happy he was about it, and that he did not want the same thing to happen to him and have others show unabashed glee over his fate. However Sadat was told to be more careful after the deal that he made, that people were pissed at him, and he basically ignored that and did not step up his security in any way and that's how they go tthe chance to assassinate him. Arafat took no such chances. He had security that would make President Bush envious, he had guards and soldiers that shadowed his every move and were totally loyal to him as well, even he said that no one could approach him except God when he was asked if he was afraid of assassination, and he meant that his security was so good that no one had a chance of getting him, after all, Israel had tried to assassinate him many, many times, and even they could not do it, so he was not afraid of that, so there was no rational reason for him to fear retribution if he made a deal with Israel, so that was not why he consistently failed to do it. Still others say that the reason that he did not do it was because he was totally defined by his cause which was getting a Palestinian state, and if he got that, he would have nothing anymore, and he would have to Have done like reverend Al Sharpton and get a reality TV show or wait until VH-1 came calling about a reunion special and such, and that he did not want to do that, so he refused everything he was offered. That one holds no water either, because he would have been the Father of Palestine, and, as such, guaranteed a comfortable living where he could have enjoyed the enormous sums of money that he embezzled with no problem at all. He would have been the Palestinian George Washington and been far from forgotten. So none of this makes any sense as to why he always went to the finish line but never crossed it.
What does make sense about it is that he was just a fuckin' asshole that wanted to make trouble around the world like bin Laden does now, and acted like he did because of that. He knew that he had zero business being a head of state, that he was not a politician or a Holy Man, but he wanted to have what they had for himself. He saw that terrorist guerrillas like him never got shit in the end, like Che Guevarra and Pol Pot and the like, and he did not want to end up like them, he wanted to be this historical figure that would be talked about all night long on TV when he died. He fuckin' Hated Israel, he always did, he just realized that it was better for him not to be such an atagonistic fucker about it, to pretend that he was a statesman since there was no one else from his cause that was able to do any of that. He knew that it was more antagonistic to pretend that he wanted a negotiated settlement and then go through everything to get one and then continually back out at the last minute than it was to shoot bombs and rockets. After he did that a few times, Israel realized it too, and they made the last few years of his life pretty rough, by confining him to his compound at Ramallah and then constantly attacking it so that the place was pretty much in ruins these last few years. Araft was getting old and it was not good for him to be continually cooped up in a ramshackle place like his compound got to be, and that eventually led to the permanent deterioration of his health that culminated a few hours ago. Essentially, the dude was assassinated slowly,over a period of years by being forced to live like he did for the last few years, while Sadat had his brains blown out by his assassins in about twenty seconds, so his death was quick, while Arafat's was slow and nasty. That is how much Arafat did not care about his people or anyone else, he elected to die slowly by living in squalor rather than even risk being assassinated like Sadat, even though the chances of that were very slim for him. All he cared about was that this episode that we saw these last few years will make him a martyr in many people's eyes and assure him immortality, what every megalomaniac on Earth wants. Meanwhile, he fucked Israel again and again with his tactics, he cost Israeli politicians their jobs and cost their government money and all that shit, and was not sincere about any of it. Since Palestine was not an actual state, they did not need a politician to be their leader, they would accept any fucker that said that he was the leader, and he took full advantage of that. He was able to orchestrate assassinations and massacres and hijackings and thefts all over the place and he never had to be accountable for any of it, he never stood trial for anything. That was because he masqueraded as a statesman and pretended that he wanted peace and always backed out at the end. He literally got away with murder by doing this and he got to fuck his mortal enemies Israel over as well, so he looked at it as a win-win situation. Becoming a billionaire along the way did not hurt either, even though it did him little good these last few years, his wife and daughter are set for about twenty lifetimes now. Just like every tyrant and despot and egomaniacal motherfucker on Earth, all that Yasser Arafat cared about was himself and what he could get from it all.
The real losers in this are the Palestinian people that were forced to follow this fucker for so long. Arafat said that they were his people, the poverty stricken ones in the streets, and it is true that he gave them a voice in the world, and made their plight an international thing, assuring that they would not be forgotten by mankind. However, the same dudes that were eating dirt and such when he took over are still munching down dirt today, he did zero for them. Arafat did not even control these people, he said as much whenever a Palestinian would strap on a bomb and go for a bus ride or whatever and have his name and cause invoked as the reason why this went down. He claimed that he had no control over these people, further proving that he had no business acting as a head of state. Israel has clamped down on them as a result, and they live worse now than they did before, but many of them do not realize it. They are massing outside the compound at Ramallah as I write this, and setting tires on fire as some sort of fucked-up tribute to him. They are weeping and wailing and generally mourning this asshole that just used them for his own selfish purposes. The Palestinian Authority is about to swear in the acting President as they prepare for election in 60 days, as per their Constitution, saying that this proves that they can indeed function as a country. However, Arafat did not ever mention a successor, or ever groom anyone to take his place, so the whole thing is up for grabs, and that is not particularly good for a country that does not really exist. He knew that this would lead to political infighting out the ass, in fact, that started before he died even. As the days go on, this will get worse and worse, and no one can say what that will lead to, if there will be demonstrations and shit in the streets and assassinations and general chaos and since there is no one to take control of things, scenes like this are not so far-fetched, that's why Israel has already closed off certain areas and put their military on high alert, even in death, Arafat is fucking over the Israelis as much as he can. If shit goes wild, the Palestinian people will become captives and prisoners again, living just like Arafat was at the end, because there all sorts of right-wing Israeli politicians that would love to do that, and will not hesitate to use this time as an excuse to do so. No matter what they do, the Palestinian people lose out, If they try and do things according to their Consitiution, they run the risk of being fleeced and fucked over by their own politicians, since there is such a clear history of corruption within their ranks, it is quite possible that they will do it again, and if the people take to the streets about it, they will be met by the Israeli military and blood will flow. It looks as if it will be a while before they can even get a chance to improve their lot in life, and that is the legacy of Yasser Arafat. His death heralds the end of an era, this is true, but what era is going to dawn now is anyone's guess. The only sure thing seems to be that there will not be an orderly transition from the Arafat era to this new one and that the palestinian people will have to see things be bad for a while longer now before they can get better. For Arafat left no legacy or plan of any kind to be implemented after his death, other than how much of his money his wife and daughter get, and the whole thing is basically going to have to be started all over again from scratch and cobbled together as it goes along. Arafat died rich and free from prosecution while the Palestinians live like shit and die like dogs all because of him and the mentality that he really represented. But he will get a head of state's funeral in Cairo tomorrow with world leaders and other dignitaries attending and a worldwide TV audience as well. Those people that he claimed to represent so will be living in their squalid shacks watching it all on some shitty black and white TV set as the man that played games with their future for years is laid to rest like a statesman would be, not like a guerrilla fighting asshole would be. Arafat never gave a fuck about them in life, and now that he has croaked off, that lack of care will become very evident very quickly. People will continue to suffer and die because of the mindless bullshit that he was such a part of and the world will not be a better place because Yasser Arafat was in it for so long. His state funeral will be as much of a joke as his efforts for the Palestinian people were, but as always, the joke will be on the regular people and not Arafat. The era that has ended is one that falls under the category of good riddance. The one that is dawning today could be the best one ever for the Palestinians or the worst one ever, and seeing how Arafat set everything up during his life, the odds are that it will be the worst one ever, and that is the man's legacy, a shameful, selfish one that deserves no honors, but scorn and ridicule.