MIDEAST: U.S. helped Arafat to gain his position

I love it when leftist Americans parrot Arab characterizations of Israel as a "terrorist nation" and call upon the United States to stop funding Israel, its only friend and ally in the region.

I agree that we should stop funding terrorist organizations. However, Israel is not one of them.

He may be dead, but he his deadly legacy remains. Yasser Arafat took over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1969 and built it into the world's largest and richest terrorist organization.

In the 1970s, Arafat made billions of dollars by exploiting the narcotics trade and by looting Lebanon banks.

Arafat and friends continued to get rich during the Gulf War. Palestinians who supported Arafat helped direct Iraqi troops to rich Kuwaitis and deposits of gold and valuables, while joining in the rape, pillage and murder of Kuwaiti citizens.

With the Oslo Accords, the PLO-dominated Palestinian Authority began receiving billions of dollars in funds from previously reluctant Western countries, in addition to the $500 million our Congress gave it annually in foreign aid.

In 1995, the General Accounting Office produced a financial report (made classified by the Clinton administration) confirming that Arafat and the PLO held well over $10 billion in assets, even at a time when Arafat was publicly claiming bankruptcy. To date, more than 37 percent of these assets remain unaccounted for.

None of Arafat's money has ever been invested in refugee camps or human services infrastructure, whereas much has been invested in lavish housing and gifts for Arafat and friends. So much for saving his Palestinian people.

How then did Arafat and his thugs wind up in control of the Palestinian Arabs with the authority and appellations of government officials? The reason is because our government thought that the more money and "re- sponsibility" it gave to Arafat, the more inclined he would be to "join the international community."

It was American money and influence that enabled the PLO to make itself into the Palestinian Authority, a typically corrupt, internally violent and externally warlike Third World regime based on "special security forces."

Before people ask why we fund Israel, maybe they should ask why we funded an organization that murdered hundreds of Americans in the past and has never made any apology or restitution. Maybe they should also ask why we continue dealing with Mamoud Abbas, Arafat's protege.