Arafat in Bethlehem

TruthNews Commentary, December 28, 2001

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's demand to be allowed to visit Bethlehem on Christmas Eve represents a height of hypocrisy previously unscaled by even this master hypocrite. After ruining Bethlehem for everyone else, Arafat the terrorist wants to visit Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.

The Palestinian terrorist leader, a Muslim, has attended Christmas Eve services at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem since Israel gave Arafat control of the town six years ago. But after Arafat's terrorists blew up 25 Israelis, mainly teenagers and old people, in suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa, the Israeli government struck back by blowing up Arafat's helicopters and breaking off all contacts with Arafat.

Since then, Arafat has been stranded in Ramallah, one of the Palestinian cities that was turned over to his control in 1994. To get to Bethlehem, he has to cross through Israeli controlled territory. The Israelis, on the orders of Ariel Sharon, refused him passage. Arafat said that he would travel to Bethlehem even if he had to walk, but in the end, he stayed put in his comfortable quarters in Ramallah, rather than trying to follow in the footsteps of Mary and Joseph.

Although Arafat has attended Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem the past six years, Arafat apparently is still confused about why Christmas Eve is observed in Bethlehem. In recent remarks calling on Palestinians to seize Jerusalem, Arafat called Jerusalem the place of Jesus' birth. You would think Arafat would have learned where Jesus was born after all these pilgrimages.

Two years ago, Arafat's Palestinian Authority was busy using Other People's Money to build up Bethlehem, to host the millions of pilgrims expected for the millennium celebrations. But in July of 2000, Arafat rejected then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak's offer of an independent Palestinian state consisting of 90 percent of the West Bank and Gaza strip with its capitol in eastern Jerusalem. After thumbing his nose at Barak and his sponsor Bill Clinton at Camp David, Arafat went back to Israel and in September 2001 embarked on a killing spree that shut down Bethlehem and other West Bank biblical sites to foreign visitors. Christmas 2000, ostensibly the 2000th birthday of Christ if one accepts the accuracy of the Latin calendar, was a very subdued affair in Bethlehem, with only a few locals in attendance.

Arafat has subsequently used Bethlehem and other Christian sites as staging points for terrorist attacks against Israel, thereby bringing these sites under attack. So this year, the hotels are empty in Bethlehem. Christmas Eve celebrations were sparsely attended. The citizens of Bethlehem are afraid for their lives.

Now that his terrorist activities have blocked millions of pilgrims from visiting Bethlehem for the past 15 months, Arafat is complaining about the Israeli government blocking his own visit to Bethlehem. So now, many Israelis are upset about the tough stance of their own government toward the terrorist chieftain. Left wing Knesset member Ran Cohen fumed that the "government has already managed to turn the entire Christian world against us by stupidly stopping Yasser Arafat from attending the Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem." Arafat’s Muslim allies also entered the fray. Moustafa Al-Fiqi, a ranking member of what passes for a parliament in Egypt, said that "Israel has recently transgressed all red lines by barring Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from participating in the Christmas mass in Bethlehem, and proceeding with its blackmailing of the world."

Apparently Al-Fiqi, a Muslim, is upset that we Christians are being "blackmailed." Apparently, Ran Cohen believes that the entire Christian world has turned against Israel because Arafat can’t go to Bethlehem. Let me give a Christian viewpoint: WE DON’T WANT ARAFAT IN BETHLEHEM. We don’t want him in Jerusalem. We don’t want him in the West Bank. We don’t want him in Israel. An Israeli Knesset member said it best when he said, "Arafat is a Muslim terrorist, not a Christian saint." A senior aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that "If Arafat wants to worship God, he has to stop worshiping terrorists." If we’re upset about anything, it is that Israel continues to allow this unreconstructed murderer’s foul presence to pollute the Holy Land.

Arafat, in visiting Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, undoubtedly wants to portray himself as one of the wise men who came to give gifts to the infant savior. But in reality, Arafat is more of a Herod. The Bible records that Herod, a non-Jew appointed king of Judea by the Romans, ordered the children in Bethlehem killed so there would be no threat to his remaining the king of the Jews. Arafat likewise wants to kill the Jews so only he can reign over the land of Israel. But history records that Herod dropped dead shortly after this foul deed. Maybe Arafat will do likewise.

More TruthNews