Why Condolences?

Upon the death of Yasir Arafat, [U.S.] President George W. Bush declared, "We express our condolences to the Palestinian people."

Why condolences? Would it be appropriate to offer condolences to the German people upon the death of Adolph Hitler? Must not the German people be held responsible for the election and monstrous crimes of that tyrant? Must not the same be said of their Arab successors, who call themselves called "Palestinians"? Are they not responsible for the election and monstrous crimes of Yasir Arafat?

Ponder the words of Albert Einstein::

"The Germans as an entire people are responsible for the mass murders and must be punished as a people if there is justice in the world and if the consciousness of collective responsibility in the nations is not to perish from the earth entirely. Behind the Nazi party stands the German people, who elected Hitler after he had in his book [Mein Kampf] and in his speeches made his shameful [genocidal] intentions clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding."

Were not Yasir Arafat's genocidal intentions toward the Jews of Israel also "clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding"? Did he not repeatedly declare Jihad against Israel since the day he signed the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles of September 13, 1993? Was this not clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding to the Arabs who nonetheless elected him as their Fuhrer?

Is it not clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding that poll after poll of these Arabs reveals their desire to destroy Israel? Is it not clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding that these Arabs glorify the suicide bombers who have reduced Jewish men, women, and children to body parts? Is it not clear beyond the possibility of misunderstanding that these Arabs teach their children to emulate these murderers?

Must they not therefore be held collectively responsible for the brutal murder of Jews perpetrated by Arafat's despotic government, the "Palestinian Authority"? And must they not be punished, as Einstein said of the German people, "if there is justice in the world and if the consciousness of collective responsibility in the nations is not to perish from the earth entirely"?

So why offer these Arabs condolences on the demise of their leader, Yasir Arafat? Should they be filled with grief and therefore truly mourn the passing of this thug — who robbed them blind and brought them only poverty, death, and destruction?

And what of the nations that have honored this thug? The honor they bestowed upon him while he lived and now upon his passing, despite his countless crimes against humanity, starkly reveals the depravity of mankind. Because they honored this villain while he lived, they cannot remove the stain of their own shamelessness, and so they must honor his corpse and thus persist in their shamelessness.

One last word: To offer condolences to those who call evil good is to perpetuate evil. Woe unto those who do so.

[ Professor Paul Eidelberg ]