An amazing little interchange at the end of a short interview between ABC News’ Bob Woodruff Yasser Arafat:
Woodruff: If you want to control suicide bombers, can you stop them?
Arafat: We have stopped them and we’ve succeeded.
Woodruff: Can you stop them again?
Arafat: Yes, and yesterday they had called, they are ready to return back to truce.
Woodruff: Do you want to stop them now?
Arafat: What?
Woodruff: Do you want to stop the suicide bombers now?
Arafat: Ask them and ask your American representatives how many times we have succeeded to stop the suicide bombers and arrest them.
Woodruff: But do you have the power now to stop them?
Arafat: You are not fair and thank you.
So either Arafat can’t really stop them, but claims he can as the sole reason for keeping him around, or else he can stop them, and therefore is culpable for their actions.
That’s just great.
(via BuzzMachine)
Since Arafat has in the past specialized in saying whatever the west wants to hear, this little slip of almost honesty astounds me.
I’m irritated by the whole nest of vipers that slither around on both sides of that fight, but Arafat has been around for so long that his inconsistancies are a matter of public record.