Arafat's death: End of terrorism chic?

		The Catholic  Difference  George Weigel

I was standing in a lengthy airport security line when CNN's Airport Channel broadcast the news of Yasser Arafat's death in Paris.

And I wondered how many of my fellow-passengers - who, simply to board an airplane, were being subjected to inconveniences and indignities they couldn't have imagined 20 years ago - connected the dots. For whatever else he did or didn't accomplish in his life, Yasser Arafat certainly changed the way the world travels.

For the worse.

Celebrity terrorist

It's hard to observe the classic maxim, De mortuis nil nisi bonum [Speak nothing but good of the dead], in marking the death of Arafat, because the commentator might well be reduced to silence.

Arafat was the first of the Arab world's celebrity terrorists, the man who wore a holster to the rostrum of the U.N. General Assembly - a Che Guevara who swapped the beret for the checkered kafiyeh.

Nothing he did seemed to diminish his celebrity: not the airplane hijackings; not the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics; not the murder of American diplomats in Sudan a year later; not the murder of some two dozen children at an Israeli school in Maalot a year after that.

Yasser Arafat remained a celebrity after his minions threw a wheelchair-bound American, Leon Klinghoffer, over the side of a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro. He remained a celebrity when he called the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat a "traitor" for making peace with Israel.

He remained a celebrity when, at Camp David in 2000, he refused the most generous peace settlement any Palestinian leader is likely to receive - and launched the bloody second intifadah to distract attention from his own responsibility for the failure of the Oslo accords.

Poisoned minds

There were things at which he was skilled. He was a world-class kleptomaniac, who pocketed hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars intended for the economic development and humanitarian relief of his people. He ran a comprehensive welfare agency as a personal fiefdom, binding the poor and suffering to him and his Fatah movement by payments for medicines and scholarships.

He poisoned the minds, hearts, and souls of the young, approving textbooks that taught them to add the number of "dead Zionists" killed by "freedom fighters."

Palestinians' future

In the wake of Arafat's demise, speculation was rife as to whether his death created a new opening for Middle East peace. We must hope and pray that that's the case.

But Arafat's short- and medium-term impact is likely to be found among the seething teenagers and young adults of the Palestinian Authority, to whom he taught the "nobility" of blowing the legs off grandmothers and shredding infants through nail-bombs.

Will these young people forget lessons taught them by Arafat? Perhaps only if a Palestinian leader emerges who has the courage to say that celebrity terrorists are just as bad as garden-variety terrorists, and that a law-governed state capable of making peace cannot be built on a foundation of rage, hate, and murderous violence.

Progress toward Middle East peace must also address the Christian exodus from the Holy Land. Arafat's Palestinian Authority was not Christian-friendly. The Christian holy places risk being reduced to theme parks, devoid of living Christian communities.

One sign that we're moving past Arafat and terrorist chic will be when religious freedom becomes a living reality in an emerging Palestinian state.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

In today's world: We need Christmas

		Grand Mom  Audrey  Mettel Fixmer

Last month was the first time in the 12 years I have been writing my Grand Mom column that I missed a deadline. I apologize to my editors and to my faithful readers.

I doubt if you missed me half as much as I missed the warm feeling of reaching out to all of you with my little commentaries on growing old gracefully. It's a privilege I will cherish for many more years, God willing.

Last month our family was going through another crisis with my daughter, Elizabeth, which demanded my full attention. She had been rushed to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minn., where she had emergency surgery. At this writing she has survived the surgery but is still in Rochester awaiting her first cancer treatments.

Thanks to all of our parish and many of my readers, whose prayers have stormed heaven, she is holding her own now, so I can stay home for awhile to prepare for Christmas.

Hectic race

And don't we desperately need Christmas? In this hectic race we call life, we need the centering that Christmas brings. We need to step back from the rat race and ask ourselves what this is all about.

The other day I was standing in front of my microwave where I was thawing out some fish I was going to make for dinner. I found myself impatiently tapping my foot and muttering, "Hurry up, hurry up."

Then I remembered a time when microwaves were first invented. I saw a cartoon where someone was saying that very thing to his own microwave. The humor came from the fact that at that time we were so thrilled with the newfound high speed, it seemed ridiculous to want even more speed. And that's exactly where we are today: demanding more speed.

Pressure builds

We live in a world of high speed Internet provided in nearly every hotel, and we demand faster cars, fast food, and one-day dry cleaning service. We must have remotes for our TV, our VCR, and our DVD, to say nothing of unlocking our cars!

Our photos must be printed in one hour and we shop in catalogs that flaunt 24-7 hours for ordering and overnight delivery.

Because modern technology has made it possible for us to "do it all," we think we must do it all. And the pressure builds . . . and builds.

Time for prayer

A new issue of U.S. Catholic arrived yesterday, and I was fascinated by the title of one article, "All Work and No Pray?" I was even more impressed when I saw that it had been written by David Liners, the son of our good friends, Dr. Bob and Lois Liners of Watertown and St. Henry Parish.

They are the couple I have written about before in this column as shining examples of senior citizens spending their retirement working to improve the world, not just their little corner, but off to Third World countries, where they set up dental clinics two months out of the year.

In his article Liners gives examples of several people who are living hectic lives of service to others, including their own families, but who maintain their sanity by setting aside time each day for prayer. "It keeps me centered" is the common thread running through these stories.

Love of Christmas

And I believe that is what Christmas does for all of us. Every time we see a manger scene (yes, there are a few here and there among all the lighted Santas and reindeer bobbing their heads on our lawns), we are reminded of the true meaning of Christmas. We are allowed to welcome that Christ Child once each year to bring hope and joy and peace to the world.

Hope for those thousands like my daughter who are suffering, joy to the poor who have so little comfort, peace to those servicemen and women who are in harms way and longing to be home again.

Most of all, though, Christmas brings love. For a few hours in the midst of all the pain and struggles, we will again feel the love of Christ and be moved to share His love with all those around us.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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