The Documents in the Case,
The Documents in the Case, the Weapons in the Compound, and the Bats in the Belfry
Andrew Sullivan, on the latest round of evidence on the Arafat/PA terror connection:
We're supposed to be shocked that Israel is now producing documentary evidence of Arafat's direct link to the terrorist mass-murder of Israeli civilians. Forgive my comparative equanimity. Anyone truly shocked at proof that the Palestinian Authority has direct links to Iraq, Iran and Syria, and is a de facto terrorist organization needs help.
They sure do. Need "help," I mean. I'm all for documenting the evil. (By the way-- has it appeared on-line yet? I haven't been able to find it...) But it's abundantly clear that no amount of evidence, documentary or otherwise, will sway Arafat's diehard
Western European apologists and cheerleaders. Support for Arafat's predations is an ideological position, assumed without regard to facts or circumstances. It's also a kind of madness. For the moment, I've given up trying to sort out the swarm of "antis" underlying the pathology (anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism,anti-Semitism, anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism-- you name it, we're against it.) "Plausible deniability" of the PA's terrorist essence has always been a stretch; the idea that terrorist operations were planned and funded through the PA without Arafat's knowledge or consent has always been preposterous, even before the capture of the Karin-A shipment. On some dark, twisted, incomprehensible level, the compulsion to leap to Arafat's defense at the drop of an RPG must reflect a degree of approval of such activities. And the "denial" is required to disguise the unseemliness of the approval? Or maybe they just want to sleep with their mothers and murder their fathers. I don't know: I'm not a real doctor.
Anyway, any armchair jihad-ophile who wasn't persuaded by this or this probably isn't going to let a few documents get in the way.
Posted by Dr. Frank at May 6, 2002 10:05 AM
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