Digested

Yasser Arafat will be viewed by some as a hero, others as a thug. Both views are fraught with political baggage, and I decline to take sides. He joins the large group of men who have exercised power, sent others to die and kill in his name, amassed wealth, and left a mess for others to clean up. It is very rare to see powerful people leaving a better world than when they started.

One thing I take issue with him and possibly his enemies and the western media; invariably when the word peace was used in news reports it meant someone or many had died in horrible ways. At best there have been lulls in the fighting, at worst the pugilists have stepped back to regroup and rethink their strategy before starting again. Stop insulting my intelligence by subverting this word, to quote a Hebrew prophet, 'saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.'