Another Palestinian terrorist bites the dust...

I realize that I may sound callous saying this, but good riddance to Yasser Arafat. Last Thursday, after suffering a brain hemorrhage and lapsing into a coma, one of the world's most vile terrorists finally kicked the bucket. While it is satisfying that nobody had to waste a bullet on him, it is a bit disheartening that he got to die in a warm bed surrounded by his family and close ones. I suppose we must take the good with the bad.

It never ceases to amaze me that so many people actually considered Arafat a legit leader. This man was the face of modern terrorism, and he put several common terrorist practices into place, including the hijacking of airliners, taking innocent hostages and killing diplomats. Besides that, Arafat himself was the cause for no peace agreement being reached in the Middle East.

"Everyone has now discovered who is the real terrorist organization," Arafat said in a 1988 Playboy Magazine interview. "It is the Israeli military junta who are killing women and children, smashing their bones, killing pregnant women." Perhaps Arafat, in his supreme spin on Israel's military, had forgotten about May 1974, when, as the leader of the terrorist Palestinian Liberation Organization, three PLO terrorists entered the Israeli town of Ma'alot and captured a local school, that resulted in the deaths of 21 children. I suppose he just forgot about them. Or maybe he didn't even care.

In a column by BBC reporter Barbara Plett entitled "Yasser Arafat's Unrelenting Journey," Plett, describing the airlift of Arafat out of his compound, said, "when the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound, I started to cry ... without warning." Does anyone else find it disgusting that someone would cry over the death of this human piece of trash? Did she cry about the countless victims of Arafat's PLO? This man's death deserves no tears.

Another British news source, The Guardian, following Arafat's death, had an article by columnist Derek Brown who spoke of Arafat's "undisputed courage as a guerrilla leader" and "his extraordinary courage" as a peacemaker. Is this guy living in an alternate universe? I think The Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, in his article "Arafat the monster," summed up the arrogance of Brown's comments best when he said, "It is an odd kind of courage that expresses itself in shooting unarmed victims – or in signing peace accords and then flagrantly violating their terms." Truer words were never spoken.

Arafat's death, coupled with the fact that his successor will likely be a moderate, will no doubt make it easier to achieve peace in the Middle East. The world is definitely a better place without Arafat, and the news of his death was one of the best stories this year. We can only hope that Osama Bin Laden will follow suit and croak right alongside Arafat's grave.

Gerry Wachovsky is a senior broadcast journalism major at CSULB and the Diversions editor of the Online 49er.