By:Beth Wallach
As the saying goes, there are two sides to every story. When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, two points of view is mere folly. With the recent death of Yasser Arafat, who died of yet undisclosed causes at a Paris hospital at the age of 75, local religious leaders have mixed, albeit definite, views about the man some reviled and others revered, and the peace process going forward.
Marc Gruber, Central Synagogue's reform rabbi, is hopeful that the peace process can be resumed if the Palestinian people unite around a different kind of leadership. Despite media images of gun-toting young men in the streets of Ramallah, he believes there's "a large contingency desirous of peace."
After Arafat and the PLO agreed to recognize Israel in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords, he and Israeli officials worked towards establishing peace. Those efforts were short-lived When former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's historic offer of 97 percent of the West Band and Gaza Strip was rejected by Arafat. By rejecting the offer that would have granted the Palestinians long awaited statehood in August 2000, the wheels were set in motion for an Arab uprising, resulting in the deaths of 4,000 Israelis and Palestinians.
According to Gruber, "It wasn't an easy thing for the Israelis, but the Israeli population was prepared to make sacrifices for peace. Unfortunately, Arafat and his leadership didn't educate their people for peace."
At the Islamic Center of Long Island, located in Westbury, Dr. Faroque Khan, the center's president, had a different perspective. From what he could tell, Barak's offer, declined by Arafat, was nothing new, just a "sanitized occupation," with Palestinians being given a "discontinuous state with settlements throughout and no control over air and sea."
Regarding Arafat, the president and founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization that started operations in 1964, Khan and Gruber have opposing views. While Gruber feels that it's still to early to see how history will view him, he acknowledged that Arafat, who was born in Cairo, "did more than any other to bring the issue of the Palestinians into the public light." But, according to Gruber, "he also did some terrible things." He credits Arafat for changing the face of terrorism in the world. "Part of his legacy will be the hijacking of airplanes and the killing of civilians."
Khan called Arafat the "symbol and icon of Palestinians in gaining statehood." He said the former PLO head was a revolutionary, one that "gave refugees a cause." While he "made some mistakes," said Khan, who has been with the center since its inception in 1984, "he did not sell his people out and stuck to his position. He didn't short change his people."
The view from where Rabbi Barry Dov Schwartz sits couldn't differ more from that of Khan's. The spiritual leader of Temple B'nai Sholom, Rockville Centre's conservative synagogue, referred to Arafat as a "master deceiver who died as he lived," and is mystified about how the world "still knocked at his door and came to his funeral as if he was worthy of the world's attention." Like Gruber, he accused Arafat of being a key player in the birthing of modern terrorism, citing his killing of 24 children in the northern Israeli village of Maalot in 1974.
Khan appears to be more skeptical than the two rabbis about the prospects for peace in a post-Arafat world. While he believes that up to 70 percent of the Palestinian people want to make peace, "a lot depends on what happens in Washington," and is hoping that the U.S. government and the United Nations take an active role in free elections. He did, however, express grave concern about the current administration's "my way or the highway" kind of diplomacy. He said his biggest fear is the direction our country is going in, and that we're perceived around the globe as "isolationists with an arrogant point of view."
Gruber and Schwartz, on the other hand, upon hearing of Arafat's death, had similar first reactions, that of hope. They share the view that peace can be achieved if the Palestinians are able to hold free elections and establish leaders with more moderate points of view. Schwartz is worried that before elections can take place, moderates may be killed or bow out due to pressure from militant factions,
such as Hamas and Fatah. Gruber is hoping that the various militias will be reigned in under new leadership, and the Palestinians will be educated in a way that "allows them to look at Israelis as partners in peace rather than the 'demonized others'". While Arafat galvanized his people, said Gruber, "He could only go so far, but couldn't bring them to the peace table."
Both Jewish leaders said they were appalled by the amount of money Arafat pilfered from the Palestinian treasury. By some estimates, according to Schwartz, he may have stolen up to $6 billion, "while the population lives in poverty in refugee camps." Commenting on his legacy, Schwartz said, "It would take an encyclopedia to catalogue all the evil that he committed against his own people."
Adhering to Islamic tradition, Khan, upon hearing of Arafat's death, said a prayer for his soul, and expressed sympathy and condolences to his family and followers. Several members of Schwartz's congregation asked him if Arafat's death was cause for celebration. The rabbi reminded his congregants that it is written in the Book of Proverbs, "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls." Said Schwartz, "There will be no rejoicing, but there are no tears."
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