On this, the tenth anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, I’d like to share my obituary of him, a cover story in The Weekly Standard. It was the second article I ever published. Here’s the start:

AT HIS DEATH, Yasser Arafat was viewed in Europe–always his most important constituency outside the Middle East–as the humble and pitiable leader of the dispossessed Palestinian people. But this image does little justice to the magnitude of his achievements. Arafat was the father of modern terrorism, and leaves behind a people ruined almost beyond salvation, a West divided against itself, and a global conflict that may last generations.
Nobody could have predicted how fitting his last days would be. The story that played out at Percy Hospital in Paris was the story of his life: a farce wrapped in lies and manipulations. . . .

Read the rest here. While the Middle East burns still in the hatreds he did so much to inflame, may this Soviet-trained terrorist, mass-murderer, child-murderer, and traitor to his own people be remembered for what he was.