Yasser Arafat and the Islamic Republic of Iran by Farhad Mafie

Can you remember the only time the Ayatollah Khomeini smiled?

The first and only time that Ayatollah Khomeini smiled was when he sat next to Mr. Arafat in Tehran on March 5, 1979. Mr. Arafat was the first foreign dignitary —actually the first official terrorist — who came to Iran after Iranian generals were summarily executed by order of criminals such as Dr. Ibrahim Yazdi (now a “reformist”). After Naji, Rahimi, Khosrowdad, and Nasiri were brutally executed, Arafat and Khomeini hugged each other and smiled.

Mr. Arafat was greeted as a hero by the victorious Mullahs and their leader Ayatollah Khomeini, as well he should have been greeted, given the valuable assistance that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) had provided to the opponents of Iran’s monarchy in terms of training terrorists, supplying weapons to the Mullahs and their leftist supporters, and participating in killing Iranian demonstrators in Tehran’s streets to further destroy the Shah’s political image.

Ayatollah Khomeini, as a sign of appreciation, closed the Israeli Embassy in Tehran and turned it into the PLO’s official headquarters and embassy, so that it displayed the Palestinian flag. Later, he allowed the PLO to have a branch office in Iran’s most important and richest province, Khozestan. Once again the old saying applies: Birds of a feather …

Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) has been working directly with all the terrorist elements within the PLO, and it has even created several new terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah ("Party of God"), to further enhance its terrorist bases in the region. These organizations are supported both with Iranian Revolutionary Guards and with millions of dollars that should belong to the Iranian people.

Just as the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have no interest in the well-being of Iranians and the future of Iran, Mr. Arafat too has no interest in the millions of Palestinians and the millions of Israelis who are also suffering from all these wars. The collapse of the second Camp David talks showed that Mr. Arafat is no politician. He has no sense of creating a win-win model so that his people could start focusing on building their state and their future.

After the collapse of the second Camp David talks, he told Mr. Khatami: “We chose the way that religion and history of all Muslims have entrusted to us" (as quoted by the IRNA). For Mr. Arafat, being in line with the darkest forces of the Islamic fundamentalists is much more important than the well-being of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people are suffering due to the incompetence of Mr. Arafat as a leader, a leader who has not learned what the late President Anwar Sadat lost in war and what he was able to accomplish through the power of negotiation. Sadat's unique approach made it possible for all parties concerned to think of the Middle East problem in a nontraditional way. Courageously, he broke a pattern of stalemate and mutual hostility between Israel and Egypt, the most populous and politically powerful of the Arab states. Today, Palestinians need a courageous Sadat to look after their sovereignty and their prosperity, not an IRI lookalike with outdated thinking!

Who are the true beneficiaries of the current war between Israel and Palestinian? Among them are the following:

• The Islamic Republic of Iran. Any war in the Middle East diverts the attention of everyone from the IRI’s criminal and terrorist activities and therefore helps the IRI.
• IRI Supporters in the West. In the same way, IRI supporters in the West are doing their best to further divert the attention of the Iranian people away from Iran’s issues by disseminating more and more horrified Palestinian pictures and of course many signature-collecting petitions to condemn the Israelis. The same petition-generating gang NEVER sends a single petition to condemn any of the criminal activities of the IRI. They operate as if the basic needs of millions of Iranians are being well met, and now we should pay attention to other people’s issues and problems.
• The Usual “Dark Forces.” These are the ones who take advantage of tragedies to further support their senseless and ludicrous anti-Jewish, anti-Moslem, or anti-Arab positions.
• Arab and Israeli Extremists. Those elements in the Arab countries and also in Israel who take advantage of tragic events to further justify their outrageous actions and their criminal mentality.

Just as Iran’s solution is to establish a secular democratic system by the Iranian people, the Palestinian solution is to select a leader who is interested in the well-being of Palestinians and is willing to try new methods and approaches to bring peace and prosperity to his people. As always, those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Birds of a feather flock together.