Howard and Arafat

[Violet_Crumble]

by Alex Kouttab
November 21, 2004

As the world learnt of Yasser Arafat's death last week, official tributes and condolences from political leaders and dignitaries across the globe began to filter through. Nearly all conveyed a sense of loss, nearly all offered their condolences to the Palestinian people, and nearly all recognized the importance of a man who had achieved iconic status as the most recognizable figurehead of the Palestinian struggle for the last 50 years.

I say nearly all because the official reactions from two countries clearly stood out in marked contrast to the ritualized panacea of diplomacy, formality and respect that was on show. Predictably, the first reaction came from Israel.

<snip>

The other response that stood out from the rest of the international community did not come from the White House as one would have expected, but from the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard. Here is what Howard had to say:

"I think history will judge him very harshly for not having seized the opportunity in the year 2000 to embrace the offer that was very courageously made by the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, that involved the Israelis agreeing to about 90 percent of what the Palestinians wanted."

<snip>

In all, it was an extraordinary display of ignorance, arrogance and sheer partisanship by a Prime Minister speaking from the relative obscurity of Canberra, thousands of miles away from the Middle East, who isn’t - it should be explained - generally known here for his great command of Arab history or politics, or his great compassion for the down trodden and dispossessed.

<snip>

John Howard represents the worst of these colonial and racist traditions. A cultural conservative who is forever looking back to the pre-multicultural heyday of the 1950's, the trademark of his nine years in office has been his liberal use of racial scapegoating and his carefully staged demonization of Australia's own Arab and Islamic communities. Perhaps the only redeeming feature about his comments is that given his relative unimportance in influencing international affairs, few in the international community actually listen to what he has to say.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=6704

[Matilda]

1. John Howard, as we know, is a mean-spirited and ugly little man.

I don't loathe him because he's a Liberal, I loathe him because he's
a horrible person.