El Tintero: politics, technology, and other important stuff

Yassir Arafat, la cabeza del terrorismo Palestino, finalmente ha muerto apenas hace algunos minutos. En Palestina desde hoy en la mañana ya se planeaba su funeral, y se reportaba que había caído en una profunda coma de la cual no se recuperaría.
Arafat pasará a la historia como alguien que lo tuvo todo y lo dejó ir. Tenía la paz para su pueblo, pero prefirió el terrorismo y la violencia. No dejo de recordas las palabras de Bill Clinton en su biografía ‘My Life’:

At times Arafat seemed confused, not wholly in command of the facts. I had felt for some time that he might not be at the top of his game any longer, after all the years of spending the night in different places to dodge assassins’ bullets, all the countless hours on airplanes, all the endless hours of tension-filled talks. Perhaps he simply couldn’t make the final jump from revolutionary to statesman. He had grown used to flying from place to place, giving mother-of-pearl gifts made by Palestinian craftsmen to world leaders and appearing on television with them. It would be different if the end of violence took Palestine out of the headlines and instead he had to worry about providing jobs, schools, and basic services. Most of the young people on Arafat’s team wanted him to take the deal. I believe Abu Ala and Abu Mazen also would have agreed but didn’t want to be at odds with Arafat.
He simply
couldn’t make the
final jump
from revolutionary
to statesmanWhen he left, I still had no idea what Arafat was going to do. His body language said no, but the deal was so good I couldn’t believe anyone would be foolish enough to let it go.
In February 2001, Ariel Sharon would be elected prime minister in a landslide. The Israelis had decided that if Arafat wouldn’t take my offer he wouldn’t take anything, and that if they had no partner for peace, it was better to be led by the most aggressive, intransigent leader available. Sharon would take a hard
line toward Arafat and would be supported in doing so by Ehud Barak and the United States. Nearly a year after I left office, Arafat said he was ready to negotiate on the basis of the parameters I had presented. Apparently, Arafat had thought the time to decide, five minutes to midnight, had finally come. His watch had been broken a long time.
Arafat’s rejection of my proposal after Barak accepted it was an error of historic proportions. However, many Palestinians and Israelis are still committed to peace. Someday peace will come…

Someday peace will come, y esta será sin Arafat, ya que el no quiso paz.