YudelLine

by Reb Yudel

Yossi Klein Halevy remembers Yasser

The National Catholic Reporter runs two obits on Yasser Arafat. One from the Lebanon Daily Star, and one from our man Yossi:

In practical terms, Arafat has insured that a comprehensive peace agreement will remain elusive even after his death. The abyss of mistrust he leaves behind insures that the Israeli public will insist on a prolonged testing period of Palestinian intentions before agreeing to share Jerusalem with an armed Palestinian authority.

The concretization of that mistrust is the security barrier Israel is currently completing along the length of the West Bank -- which should, in fact, be called the "Yasser Arafat Memorial Fence."

Arafat created the conditions that made the fence -- once inconceivable for Israelis -- a life and death necessity, embraced by almost all parts of the political spectrum.