Reports indicate R. Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s Number 3 official, will be stepping down. A career foreign service officer, Burns will best be remembered for his most visible post: the Clinton administration’s top State Department spokesman during the mid-1990s.

It was thus he, on behalf of Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who lambasted then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for having the temerity to eject Yasser Arafat from Lincoln Center when the PLO terror master crashed a private event held in connection with the UN’s 50th anniversary. Arafat “is the leader of the Palestinian people,” Burns scoffed at the time, according to Agence-France Presse (Oct. 24, 1995). “He should be given the respect, dignity and hospitality in the US that a Palestinian leader deserves.” When it was pointed out that Fidel Castro, as well as Arafat, had been excluded from several City functions, Burns countered, “Arafat is someone we have a good relationship with. I have no comment on Castro.”

For those keeping score, that was after Arafat’s first Intifada but before his second Intifada.