ARAFAT-POCKETS: Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat is a multi-billionaire. Eschewing Enron, WorldCom and AOL-TimeWarner stocks, Arafat opted for a more basic investment method: theft. In its frontpage story today, the
New York Post reports that Israeli military intelligence has obtained records from PLO offices which show that Arafat is worth at least $1.3 billion and may, according to another Israeli source, have as much as $11 billion stashed around the world. Resembling a mobster more than a political leader, Arafat enriches himself in part by running extensive kickback schemes that result in higher prices for the already impoverished Palestinian consumers.
But Arafat's kickback rackets yield pocket change compared to largest source of his personal riches which "is believed to be the approximately $6 billion contributed by the United States, Japan and European countries as financial aid to the authority from 1993 to 2000, sources" told the Post. And who was president of the United States during that time? Why, the old legacy-and-intern seeker himself, Bill Clinton. Unwilling to undertake the difficult task of securing a real peace, Clinton attempted to buy a facsimile of it by paying off the troublemaker, Yasser Arafat. The subsequent rash of terrorism unleashed on Israel is a testament not only to Clinton's reckless quest for a positive legacy but the foolhardiness of using bribery as a cornerstone of foreign policy.
Bribing belligerents not to be belligerent always results in more belligerence. President John Adams' decision to bribe the Barbary pirates to not harass American ships led to more harassment and demands for larger bribes. The pirates of North Africa didn't halt their attacks on American vessels until President Thomas Jefferson decided that, in lieu of payment, he would send the United States Marines to the Barbary Coast.
Bribery does not secure peace; defeating the enemy does.
