Yasir Arafat’s Visit to the UN and the Long, Sorry History of Legitimizing Terrorists

While negotiations with Hamas were inevitable, especially given the need to free the hostages, the Qatar-mediated process has served to give the terrorist group a degree of legitimacy. There is an awful precedent for conferring such respectability on terrorist groups, especially those dedicated to killing Israelis. Fifty years ago last November, Yasir Arafat—dressed in fatigues and with an empty holster at his waist—addressed the UN, announcing that he was carrying “an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun,” and threatening, “Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”