I watched them bury Arafat this morning.
I felt nothing but relief and a twinge of fear.
Relief over the fact that he is really gone.
Fear of the unknown.
Watching the thousands of people crowded into the compound, seeing Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades so proudly represented, watching the chaos, I couldn't help but wonder....what's next? Who will take his place? Will it be better? Or worse?
One cabinet member is quoted as saying "The whole world is watching us now on television and we have to reflect our real picture". Yeah, we've seen the real picture. It's not pretty.
My prayer is that whomever steps up to lead the Palestinians is able to work with the rest of the world to bring a true peace to that region. But looking at that crowd of people, hearing people chanting "With our blood and our soul we will redeem you Yasser Arafat!", I'm afraid to hope.
Ocean Guy has a fantastic post looking back at Arafat's legacy. This is a MUST read for today!
I feel the same way. I'm so surprised that people are coming out and saying positive things about this terrorist. Ocean Guy nailed it.
Posted by: Boudicca at November 12, 2004 09:51 AMMy husband completely floored me yesterday as we were watching the news. He is not normally a person to keep up to date on news events at all.
As the news was doing it's story about Arafat dying hubby comes out with "Bastard, glad he's dead" and then goes on about how their terrorist and the Jewish are only using self-defense to protect themself and Palistine should just leave them alone.
I nearly fell over, I didn't think he knew anything about Arafat and Palestine and Isreal at all.
Posted by: Machelle at November 12, 2004 01:03 PMAfter all the times I wished Israel would've killed him, I'm glad they didn't.
Arafat now goes to his grave as a miserable failure instead of a martyr.
Posted by: Harvey at November 14, 2004 10:37 AM