Today, November 11th, 2004, Yasser Arafat died in France after suffering
some strange coma caused by lack of brain liquid. The exact cause still
hasn't been announced, either by official spoke person of France hospital,
member of PLO's board of executive or Zuha, Arafat's wive. Many people believe,
it is Israeli's government which took full responsibility. Mossad, Israeli's
intelligence, was suspected putting somekind of poison that slowly degrading
human antibody and damaging metabolism.
Above all, personally, I know Arafat since I was 4 or 5 years old. I remembered
the news reporter mentioned his name everytime there was a news about Palestine-
Israel conflict. Only few thing I know about him, but one thing that I respect most,
is the way he fought for country. A burning spirit that never died, even under heavy
pressure of Israel government. Especially, since Ariel Sharon took Israeli's leadership, israeli government put lots of pressure toward Arafat and isolate him ( I forgot where, maybe somewhere on Gaza). because of this isolation, Arafat can no longer live with his family. His wife and his only daugther must live in France to avoid israel's threat
truthfully, me and Arafat are not same person. He is a moslem and I am a Catholic.
But one thing that surprise me most, I saw a picture on local newspaper, there are
4 Rabbi of Jewish (it is mentioned that they are Anti Zionis) that showed their condolecence for Arafat. In some Palestine churches, people (of course, Catholic are minority in palestine) pray for Arafat. There was also memorable picture of Arafat shaking John The Pope. This facts showed that Arafat is well known among people, even with different religion.
Very few Moslem man who I know that gets such an honorship and Arafat proved he was
the true Moslem ! "Rahmatil bin alam", hope I don't mispelled, meaning "to bring
peace and prosper among all of God's creation in whole universe"
Maybe the only similarity between me and Arafat is, we both have tough Israeli's enemy. If he is considered #1 enemy of Ariel Sharon, me.....don't be shocked, I already considered #2 (if not #1) enemy of Moshe Bar, one of toughest and formidable israeli scientist and CTO...who is....Jewish. Maybe, in some point, I can understand why Arafat put continous struggle toward Israel. Don't get me wrong, not all of Israeli citizen are bad. There are also good people too. Same thing happen on all other country, US, Indonesia, Malaysia, German, France, u name it. Accidentaly, Arafat must face israel's pressure, and me, I can't stand hearing Moshe bluff about clustering.And finally, we both end up in final conclusion, win-win solution was hard to achieved..so..confrontation was the only answer. We both know the consequences and we both step into it. NO REGRETS !
Rest in Peace, Mr Arafat. May God reward on everything you do for your country
and I hope peace will come on Palestine so there won't be anymore victim of the war
regards
Mulyadi Santosa
