Suha Arafat's vile slander

WHAT WAS really newsworthy about Suha Arafat's antisemitic blood libel wasn't that Hillary Clinton didn't condemn it. It was that the Israeli government did.

First Lady Hillary Clinton voiced no protest when Yasser Arafat's wife spewed a stream of antisemitic blood libels in her presence.

The first lady caught a lot of flak for not objecting when Yasser Arafat's wife, during a ceremony in the Palestinian town of Ramallah, blasted Israel for the "daily and intensive use of poison gas" against Arab women and children. For good measure, she also accused Israel — in rhetoric straight out of the Dark Ages — of having "contaminated about 80 percent of water sources used by Palestinians." It comes as no surprise that a woman who married the most notorious killer of Jews in our time would spew such obscenities. Nor should anyone have been astonished that Clinton failed to pounce on Mrs. Arafat's words the way a savvy New York politician would. After all, she's not a savvy New York politician.

Only one detail made l'affaire Suha notable: The Israeli government spoke up in protest. Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office issued a statement "strongly condemning the unworthy statements made by Suha Arafat. . . . Poisoning the public atmosphere does not help the success of the negotiations." A stiff letter was delivered to the Palestinian Authority. Israeli diplomats spread the word that Jerusalem was angry.

Par for the course, you might think. But it isn't. From Arafat on down, leading Palestinians routinely traffic in disgusting libels, antisemitic canards, and naked incitements to violence — all of which have been strictly forbidden by the numerous peace accords signed by Israel and the Palestinians. Yet rarely if ever do Israeli leaders complain.

"Israel carries out a clear policy of annihilating our people and destroying our national economy by smuggling spoiled foodstuffs . . . into PA [Palestinian Authority] territory," Abd al-Hamid al-Qudsi, a deputy minister in Arafat's regime, said last year. "Israel . . . aims to kill and destroy our people." Reaction from the Israeli government? None that was detectable.

A program on the PA-controlled television station instructs viewers that "the Jews are the seed of Satan and the devils." On another broadcast, children sing at one of the Palestinians' martial summer camps:

I came to you with my sword in hand.
We will drive them [the Jews] out to the sea.
Your day is coming, conqueror, then we will settle accounts.
Our accounts are unending in stones and bullets!

To this day, the constitution of Fatah, Arafat's wing of the PLO, calls for the "complete liberation of Palestine and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military, and cultural existence." In December, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official PA newspaper, published a Fatah communique: "It is impossible to struggle against [Israel] via negotiations. There is no alternative but a struggle that will smash the Israeli aggression and emphasize the readiness of our people to explode with force."

None of this drew a hot rebuke from the Israeli prime minister. No Israeli diplomats protested the calls to violence by walking out of negotiations with the Palestinians — or by doing anything else.

In August, Arafat bestowed the PLO's highest award on Khalil al-Ra'i, a terrorist convicted of murdering an Israeli policeman. The only word from Prime Minister Barak's office was that Israel, as a sign of goodwill would soon release even more Palestinian prisoners. A few weeks later, 199 Palestinian terrorists — most of them convicted killers — were freed and sent by bus into Palestinian territory. As they disembarked, they were handed guns and welcomed into Arafat's militia.

What are the Palestinians to think when so many openly demonstrate their hatred of Israel, nurture in their children the dream of killing Jews, and flout the treaties to which they have pledged themselves, yet continue to be embraced by Israel as "peace partners?" The logical conclusion is that rejectionism pays and that the "peace process" is a sham — a fig leaf for slow Israeli capitulation.

So on and on it goes.

September: An Arabic translation of "Mein Kampf," complete with a glowing introduction, climbs to No. 6 on the Palestinian best-seller list.

October: Farouk Kaddoumi, the head of Arafat's Political Bureau, tells an interviewer: 'Don't think the PLO has given up its rifle, even though it currently proceeds with the [peace] process. We will fight as long as our lands are occupied and we will use the rifle."

November: The Palestinian education ministry issues a textbook that teaches "the basic similarity between Nazism, Fascism, and Zionism." It fits nicely with earlier textbooks, such as the language primer that tells fifth-graders, "Remember, the final and inevitable result will be the victory of the Muslims over the Jews."

Surveys of Palestinian and broader Arab opinion confirm that there is little desire for peace with the Jewish state. Much of the Arab world still dreams of Israel's elimination. The hate-filled rhetoric is not an act. But the Israeli government ignores it. "These are only words," Shimon Peres says. "Let them talk."

It wasn't Suha Arafat's vile slander that so upset Israeli officials. It was that she embarrassed Hillary Clinton in the process. The next time Mrs. Arafat accuses Jews of gassing Arab babies, she will make sure there is no American dignitary in attendance. That is apparently all that Israelis ask.

Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.

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