“A president that will be spending two days in Israel and reportedly a few hours in Palestine is certainly not presenting a picture of neutrality and evenhandedness when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians,” claims Daoud Kuttab in an article published in Al-Monitor under the title, “Why Obama Should Place a Wreath at Arafat’s Grave.” Kuttab compares the late Yasser Arafat with late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and complains that the official itinerary has the president visiting Mount Herzl to place a wreath on the grave of Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was assassinated [in 1995] by a Jewish extremist who planned on, and succeeded in, killing the peace process with the Palestinians.

Permit me to dispute this comparison. Rabin maintained his courage all the way to the bitter end, while Arafat never showed any similar courage implementing the agreement he signed, despite all his talk about the “Peace of the Bold.” Even senior members of the Palestinian Authority, including Palestinian Chairman Abu Mazen, admit that Arafat never made that mental leap from being head of an underground organization (a “terrorist organization” as far as Israelis are concerned) to head of state, charged with  ensuring his nation’s survival, integrity, and well-being.

Arafat arrived in Gaza in the spring of 1994, almost 10 months after the historic signing of the peace accords on the White House lawn. He had a unique window of opportunity to do the right thing for himself and his people by turning a page on their relationship with Israel, for the sake of both the Palestinians and Israelis. What hopes we all had then! “The era of violence is over,” and “After a century of bloodshed, the moment of reconciliation has finally arrived!” and “We are living in an age of euphoria and hope,” etc. etc. That was all because of the Oslo Accords. Back then, Palestinians dreamed of turning Gaza and the West Bank into “the Singapore of the Middle East.” But instead of taking the hundreds of millions of dollars provided by a group of donor nations (including the US) to achieve that noble goal, Arafat acted like the leader of some military power by creating more and more security mechanisms instead. He even turned the Gazans’ wretched fishing boats into an armed fleet, just so that he could boast that he had a “Palestinian navy.”

I am aware of the fact that Israel could have also made better use of its financial resources, too. Instead of pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into expanding settlements and securing illegal outposts, it could have brought about real change to achieve “social justice” within the Green Line. I am also aware of the fact that over the years, Israel didn’t uphold the Oslo Accords as strictly as it could have. Nevertheless, I am furious about the comparison between Rabin and Arafat.