Arafat Dead...

[Generalissimo]

Getting Better and Better

[The Mad Monk]

This just in:

Palestinian Chairman Yassar Arafat is still not dead.

[Last Conformist]

I think the enthusiasm for sepulchral dancing is sad. I thought a lacking taste for symbolic revenge was supposed to be one of the ways in which we're better than terrorists and their uncivilized ilk.

That said, it's not like Arafat's death is gonna draw any tears from me either. With some luck it should help the peace process along.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Okay...he was born in Gaza in 1929, when Gaza was Egyptian.

In 1929, Gaza was part of British Palestine.

[The Mad Monk]

I'm trying to deternine where the "Egyptian" claims came from.

[chequita guevara]

Arafat's organization, Al Fatah, was created and backed by Nasser, President of the United Arab Repubic (Egypt), in the 1960s.

[Edan]

The frail Cairo-born leader was elected President of the Palestinian Authority eight years ago but has been prevented by the Israeli Government to lead his nation and focus on the reconstruction of Palestine.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200411040565.html

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
I think the enthusiasm for sepulchral dancing is sad. I thought a lacking taste for symbolic revenge was supposed to be one of the ways in which we're better than terrorists and their uncivilized ilk.
.

Id be quite happy if the terrorists would keep it to only SYMBOLIC revenge.


Or kept their dancing to the occasions of deaths of political leaders, not thousands of innocents.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Edan


http://allafrica.com/stories/200411040565.html

Yep, but other sources say Gaza, a couple say Jerusalem, and one said the Jerusalem story is a plant.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Id be quite happy if the terrorists would keep it to only SYMBOLIC revenge.

I think we'd all be happy if terrorists weren't terrorists.

The reason I speak of symbolic revenge, however, is that useless acts like jumping on a dead enemy's grave - or expressing a wish to do it on an online forum - is something we can refrain form, and consider ourselves more enlightened for refraining from. Revenge against enemies that are still fighting, OTOH, is often necessary. For the US not to try and strike at AQ after the WTC attacks would have been an exercise not in good taste but in stupidity, I'm sure everyone here agrees. But if we do not refrain from "real" revenge, we can't claim that our refraining from it makes us better than them.

Or kept their dancing to the occasions of deaths of political leaders, not thousands of innocents.

When they're responsible for the actual killing of those innocents for no purpose with which I'm going to remotely sympathize, their showing some unseemly glee over it doesn't really make them meaningfully nastier in my eyes.

OTOH, it does sadden me to see someone who I otherwise perceive as a basically decent person expresses similar glee at someones death. If I may use an analogy, I care more about a small scratch on a brand new car than a big one on an ancient wreck.

[Vince278]

Gee whiz, just die already so we can move on.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by St Leo

Originally posted by Wezil
Sorry Oerdin but the planet is ssooooooo much better when some people leave it. Arafat is one of those people. Celebration required.

Don't forget to dance in the streets, flash V-signs at journalists, and shoot guns into the clear skies.

What? And send all the NDP types heading for the hills?

They proved they are a cowardly bunch in the last election....

[germanos]

According to the French Militairy Hospital, Arafat has awaken from his coma

[Dis]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
When he dies, could a mod put "No, wait -- he's dead." after "But not true" in the title?

I second that

[Vince278]

Originally posted by germanos
According to the French Militairy Hospital, Arafat has awaken from his coma

Hmm.. Who do I believe more? Palestinians or the French?