Eat your heart out, Drudge. Glenn, ya snooze, ya lose. Yourish.com has obtained the actual transcripts of Yasser Arafat’s phone calls to world leaders from inside his besieged compound! It’s another exclusive from the folks that brought you Iseema bin Laden’s Diary! Without further ado:

Arafat: Kofi, my friend, I need a little help here. Can you convene the Security Council and get them to get these Israeli tanks off my front yard?
Annan: Mr. President, you know that I will do everything in my power to help you. I have sent a memo using the strongest possible language to each of the Security Council members that we must do something about the situation in Ramallah right away. I am recommending that our assistants schedule a meeting to discuss what time the Council can meet, where we will certainly get down to the business of putting together a resolution that will ask both sides to cease the violence. But first, a question: Mr. President, have you sent out the word to your people to stop the bombing? Terrorism will not bring the Palestinian people closer to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Arafat: [click]

Arafat: Moammar, my brother, now is the time for you to step up to the rock and help your Palestinian brethren. We need you now as never before to help us defeat the Israeli aggressors!
Gaddafi: Yasser, let me ask you–did you or did you not say that you think “Isratine” was the stupidest idea since that assassination attempt on you-know-who in the eighties?
Arafat: Moammar, my brother, my friend–you do know I was only kidding, right? Just a joke! Isratine is a great idea; I’m going to bring it up at the very next Arab League Summit, I swear by the Prophet, peace be upon him.
Gaddafi: [click]
Arafat: Hello? Hello?

Arafat: Rafik, my Lebanese brother, I need your help now more than ever. What about mobilizing the forces and maybe throwing in a few columns from Syria, sending them here to Ramallah and kicking these Israelis right out of here?
Hariri: Mr. Arafat, you know we’re not allowed to mention the S-word here in Lebanon. There are no S-columns here, no soldiers from any nation other than Lebanon, and I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Arafat: Rafik, what’s the matter with you? The Israelis can’t listen in on this, it’s a secure cell phone line! Just pick up the phone to Assad and ask him for permission to send in a couple of companies!
Hariri: [using disguised voice] We’re sorry, but that number is no longer in service. Please hang up and try again later. [click]
Arafat: Hello? Hello? Damn! Again?

Arafat: Hosni, nobody understands the depths to which Sharon will sink better than you! Can you help me get those tanks out of my compound? They’ve already destroyed four of my buildings, and I just put in a hot tub last month!
Mubarak: Yasser, I’d really love to help you out. I’ve already issued a very strong statement saying in no uncertain terms that the Israelis have no right to occupy Ramallah and should leave immediately. Oh, and I called the Israelis “terrorists”, just like you suggested.
Arafat: But Hosni, I need more than words, I need action. My men are being killed, I’m trapped with no electricity, no water, and if you think not being able to flush toilets isn’t one of the more annoying things in life, you haven’t been to the slums of Cairo lately.
Mubarak: There are no slums in Cairo. There are no slums in all of Egypt. What are you implying?
Arafat: Can we talk about the poverty situation in Cairo some other time? I really need—
Mubarak: [click]

Arafat: Amr, can’t the Arab League do something about the situation?
Moussa: Yasser, we did. We issued the unanimous approval of the Saudi Peace Plan. We’ve got the PR upper hand; now the Israelis are going to look like fools, and intractable ones at that, when they refuse to go along with it. Of course we rigged it so they’ll never agree to our terms, but–
Arafat: No, Amr, I mean now. I mean can you get the League back together, issue a statement to Israel demanding that she remove the tanks from my doorstep—oh, dammit, now they ran over the rosebushes! Do you know how hard my mother-in-law worked to make those roses grow?
Moussa: Yasser, you know how hard it is to schedule these things. We can’t do this at the drop of a kaffiyeh, you know. There are people to contact, schedules to work out, parties, feasts—oh, we can’t possibly do this before August. Can you hold out ’til then?
Arafat: [click]

Arafat: Mr. Secretary, we all know that if the United States says jump, Israel says how high, can’t you call Sharon and get these tanks—
Powell: Don’t interrupt me again, Mr. Arafat, I have a few things to say to you about—terrorism.
[15 minutes later]
Arafat: So you’re telling me that I’m on my own?
Powell: No, that’s not what I said. Listen. And stop interrupting.
[15 minutes later]
Arafat: Can I get a word in edgewise now?
Powell: Yes?
Arafat: So you’re telling me I’m on my own?
Powell: [click]

Arafat: Hey! How’s it going, uh—um—
Various African leaders: [click] [click] [click] [click]

And that’s the end of the transcripts. Remember, this is exclusive to Yourish.com—so if you post this anywhere else, don’t forget our slogan: What, you think we make this stuff up?

In the tumble of the all-consuming violence, much has not been revealed or examined. Rather, a potent, simplistic narrative has taken hold in Israel and to some extent in the United States. It says: Mr. Barak offered Mr. Arafat the moon at Camp David last summer. Mr. Arafat turned it down, and then ”pushed the button” and chose the path of violence. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is insoluble, at least for the forseeable future.

But many diplomats and officials believe that the dynamic was far more complex and that Mr. Arafat does not bear sole responsibility for the breakdown of the peace effort. There were missteps and successes by Israelis, Palestinians and Americans alike over more than seven years of peace talks between the 1993 Oslo interim agreement and the last negotiating sessions in Taba, Egypt, in January.

Mr. Barak did not offer Mr. Arafat the moon at Camp David. He broke Israeli taboos against any discussion of dividing Jerusalem, and he sketched out an offer that was politically courageous, especially for an Israeli leader with a faltering coalition. But it was a proposal that the Palestinians did not believe would leave them with a viable state. And although Mr. Barak said no Israeli leader could go further, he himself improved considerably on his Camp David proposal six months later.

Later on Sontag writes of a meeting between Arafat and Barak prior to Ariel Sharon’s walk on the Temple Mount ten years ago, the ostensible reason for the so called, Aqsa Intifada.

All this behind-the-scenes movement was reflected in the atmosphere at that dinner party at Mr. Barak’s home. The prime minister, who had refused to talk directly to the Palestinian leader at Camp David, now courted him. Mr. Ben-Ami, then foreign minister, said he left the dinner and told his wife that Mr. Barak — whom he describes as ”deaf to cultural nuance” — was so intent on forging a peace agreement that he was willing to change ”not only his policies but his personality.”

But Palestinians drove away from that dinner with something else on their minds — Mr. Sharon’s coming visit to what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary and Jews know as the Temple Mount. Mr. Arafat said in an interview that he huddled on the balcony with Mr. Barak and implored him to block Mr. Sharon’s plans. But Mr. Barak’s government perceived the planned visit by Mr. Sharon, then the opposition leader, as solely an internal Israeli political matter, specifically as an attempt to divert attention from the expected return to political life by a right-wing rival — Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister.

On the heels of very intricate grappling at Camp David over the future status of the Old City’s holy sites, Mr. Sharon’s heavily guarded visit to the plaza outside Al Aksa Mosque to demonstrate Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount set off angry Palestinian demonstrations. The Israelis used lethal force to put them down. The cycle of violence started, escalated, mutated and built to a peak between mid-May and June 1 with the Israeli use of F-16 fighter jets in Nablus and the terrorist bombing outside a Tel Aviv disco.

The idea that Arafat “implored” Barak not to allow Sharon to visit the Temple Mount is a fiction promulgated by Arafat and his apologists that Sontag reported because it fit her narrative. How do we know the story is false? Because when she originally reported on the meeting, a year earlier, there was no record of any discord. The meeting went well. As I’ve blogged in the past, Sontag’s contemporaneous account called it “…the single best meeting ever between the Palestinian and Israeli leaders.”

Sontag had to have known very well what she reported a year earlier. Her decision to “report” about Arafat’s phony objection was a purposeful act of deceit for which she should have been fired. But it was important, for it confirmed the New York Times’s narrative of absolving Arafat.

Sontag wrote that Arafat was accused of “push[ing] the button” for violence but that the “the dynamic was far more complex.” Now there’s further proof that this was malarkey. And yes, it was a lie. There was no complexity here; Arafat instigated the terror and it was planned well before Sharon’s walk on the Temple Mount.

Khaled Abu Toameh reports (h/t Yaacov Lozowick):

Mahmoud Zahar, a prominent Hamas leader, has just revealed that Yasser Arafat, when he failed to get what he wanted at the negotiating table, instructed Hamas to launch terror attacks in the heart of Israel. Hamas obviously took Arafat’s orders seriously, waging an unprecedented campaign of suicide booming and terror attacks that killed and injured thousands of Jews and Arabs.
…
Zahar made this revelation during a lecture at the Islamic University in Gaza City marking the 10th anniversary of the second intifada, which erupted in September 2000, a few weeks after the failure of the Camp David summit.

This is the first time that a Hamas leader openly admits that his movement carried out terror attacks against Israel on instructions from the Palestinian Authority leader. Arafat is believed to have issued the orders to Hamas after the botched Camp David summit, which was hosted by President Bill Clinton.

Do you think that Zahar is lying? I don’t. First of all there have been reports before to this effect. Zahar, though, is the highest ranking Hamas official to make this claim. But on September 18, 2000, Ha’aretz reported:

Over the past several weeks, the Palestinian Authority has granted extended vacation leaves to dozens of jailed Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists, among
them militants who were involved in serious terror attacks against Israel.Ha’aretz: PA granted dozens of jailed Islamic Jihad, Hamas terrorists “extended vacation”

Note too, Ambassador Lancry’s letter to Kofi Annan from October 2, 2000:

The events in these areas represent the latest and most severe developments in a wave of violence that has been building over the past few weeks. The attacks began with the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails in the vicinity of the Netzarim Junction on 13 September. This was followed by the killing of an Israeli soldier by a roadside bomb on 27 September, and the murder of an Israeli police officer by a Palestinian policeman in a joint patrol on 29 September.

The events of this past Friday on the Temple Mount represent a further escalation of the Palestinian violence. Muslim worshippers, out of a desire to violently confront both Israeli police and civilians on the eve of the Jewish New Year, hurled rocks and other objects at Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall below. Israeli police attempted to turn back the protesters through non-violent means, but the mob persisted, attempting to force its way out of the Temple Mount area and through the Mughrabim gate to the Western Wall plaza. At this point, Israeli forces, who had been deployed outside the perimeter of the Mount, were compelled to enter the area to push back the charging mob. The stone-throwing mob continued in its violence for a period of more than four hours.

The violence had been going on for weeks; not days. It was orchestrated by Arafat; aided and abetted by Hamas.

The idea that Arafat was somehow misunderstood is undermined by Zahar’s boast AND a contemperaneous news accounts. Sontag’s effort to whitewash Arafat stands exposed a journalistic fraud.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

But this fig leaf (understanding the Palestinian grievance) didn’t just excuse Palestinian violence against Israel, it also shielded that Arab world from its openly antisemitic policies (they have to stick up for the Palestinians).

In his meeting with President Assad of Syria, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said:

“With Allah’s help, the new Middle East will be a Middle East without Zionists and imperialists. We hope they will recognize the rights of the region’s nations, but they must realize that if they continue along their wrongful path they have no place in our region. Today the ties between the region’s nations – between Iran, Syria and the resistance movement – are very strong. We believe that developments in the world will benefit Iran, Syria and the region’s free governments,” he said.

Note, Ahmadinejad didn’t specify and particular Israeli affront to the Middle East. No, he is offended by the presence of Zionists (read Israel.)

And what’s going one elsewhere? Well Israel declared the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Tomb of Rachel to be heritage sites. The UN, France and the United States have all deplored this move, giving support to the Palestinian denial of the historical connection between Jews and Israel.

So the same folks who criticize Israel for harming the “peace process” ignore or excuse a pretty direct threat against Israel.

The dynamic created by Yasser Arafat still works today more than years after his death. The Palestinian grievance trumps all.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Deborah Sontag initially reported on the meeting:

It was just a little suburban dinner party, nothing fancy. The host and his guest of honor cracked jokes. They strolled in the garden for an intimate chat. And then the host kissed his guest goodbye, walked him to a waiting Israeli military helicopter and waved as the guest, wearing his trademark kaffiyeh, flew back to Gaza City.

A senior adviser to Yasir Arafat said the late-night supper, at Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s private home in Kochav Yair on Monday, was the single best meeting ever between the Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

The adviser, Nabil Shaath, said today that it had been ”very cordial,” even congenial. He noted that the two men had walked together to the balcony twice — ”and both came back.”

A week later, Sontag started her article like this:

Last week, Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, were having a garden party, breaking pita bread and trading jokes in the yard of Mr. Barak’s private suburban home in Israel.

Only when she was leaving the Jerusalem desk, did Sontag write this:

All this behind-the-scenes movement was reflected in the atmosphere at that dinner party at Mr. Barak’s home. The prime minister, who had refused to talk directly to the Palestinian leader at Camp David, now courted him. Mr. Ben-Ami, then foreign minister, said he left the dinner and told his wife that Mr. Barak — whom he describes as ”deaf to cultural nuance” — was so intent on forging a peace agreement that he was willing to change ”not only his policies but his personality.”

But Palestinians drove away from that dinner with something else on their minds — Mr. Sharon’s coming visit to what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary and Jews know as the Temple Mount. Mr. Arafat said in an interview that he huddled on the balcony with Mr. Barak and implored him to block Mr. Sharon’s plans. But Mr. Barak’s government perceived the planned visit by Mr. Sharon, then the opposition leader, as solely an internal Israeli political matter, specifically as an attempt to divert attention from the expected return to political life by a right-wing rival — Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister.

Does that sound like “joking” and “cordial?” No, Sontag willfully committed fraud here. This claim of Arafat’s that he begged Barak to prevent Ariel Sharon from visiting the Temple Mount did not comport with her contemporaneous reporting. As she was preparing to leave her prestigious post, she needed a “nuanced” report that showed her sophistication that challenged assumptions that Arafat was the bad guy who rejected peace. More accurately it demonstrated sophistry. She was party to rewriting history in order to absolve a terrorist from blame he so richly deserved. That’s not journalism.

There are three other data points to keep in mind.

1) Ha’aretz reported in mid-August 2000 (via IMRA) that Arafat was granting “extended vacations” to leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Over the past several weeks, the Palestinian Authority has granted extended
vacation leaves to dozens of jailed Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists, among
them militants who were involved in serious terror attacks against Israel.

Israeli military authorities view the return of the Palestinian “revolving
door” with mounting concern.

2) The first fatality of the Aqsa intifada David Biri was killed prior to Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount.

3) Dennis Ross reported the following (via It’s Almost Supernatural)

I bid good-bye to the Palestinians at about 4pm. Two hours later Dani Yatom called me and said Israel had hard evidence that the PA were planning massive, violent demonstrations throughout the West Bank the next morning, ostensibly a response to the Sharon visit.

Dani was very clear: This would be a disaster.[...] Through their own channels the Israelis had sent messages to Arafat about the planned violence and there had been no response; it was up to us to persuade Arafat to prevent the violence.

Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount did not spark spontaneous violence. The violence orechstrated by Arafat took off the next day.There were plenty of credulous reporters and peace processors who chose to gloss over the evidence that Arafat had instigated the violence. But there’s no getting around this reality.

Sassinfras can continue to make his counter factual claims because much of the media was negligent in reporting what really happened. The media were aided and abetted by professional peace processors who generally are unwilling to admit that their fundamental assumptions about peace – starting with their belief that Arafat had changed – were dead wrong.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

During the memorial, held at Abbas’ Mukataa compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian president said, “The path of the shahids – Arafat, George Habash (founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and (assassinated Hamas spiritual leader) Sheikh Ahmed Yassin – is the path that we cherish; it is aimed at upholding the Palestinians’ nationalist and sovereign resolutions.”

Elder of Ziyon notes that Abbas’s hankering for dead terrorists, is nothing unusual.

But Ynet also notes:

The memorial underscored the growing divisions between the West Bank and Gaza. The West Bank is ruled by Arafat’s successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Gaza is run by the Islamic militant Hamas which seized the territory in 2007.

You could say that. It was illegal to commemorate Arafat’s passing in Gaza.

The first event was scheduled for Monday in Rafah and was supposed to combine three issues: Arafat’s memory; a protest over the siege of Gaza and the closing of the border crossings; and support for rapprochement talks between Hamas and Fatah being held in Cairo. Officially, all the canceled demonstrations were not under Fatah auspices but were being arranged by a coordinating committee of all PLO member organizations. In any case, the organizers of the Rafah rally were summoned by the police, held for a few hours and then asked to sign a statement they would not organize any activities or they would be fined. Some signed and others refused. The organizations have canceled all their demonstrations, though Fatah made no official announcement.Printers were also ordered not to print any material related to Arafat or his pictures without approval.

When will the international Palestinian sympathizers start protesting this blatant effort to stifle the nationalist feelings of the Palestinians?

Other cherished memories of Arafat are at Israelly Cool, Elder of Ziyon, Scrapple Face (h/t Elder of Ziyon), and Boker Tov Boulder.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.