Yasser Arafat

Trump’s Gaza peace plan officially entering Phase II, Witkoff announces

The interim governing body for Gaza will have 15 members, according to Witkoff, though their names have not been confirmed. It remains unclear how Hamas will be disarmed as required by the plan.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff speaks at the weekly rally at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, October 11, 2025.
 THE FAMOUS handshake: Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin seals the deal with PLO leader Yasser Arafat as US president Bill Clinton admires his handiwork, at the White House upon the signing of the Oslo Accords, Sept. 13, 1993.

Palestinians must renounce culture of deception for real peace with Israel - opinion

US SPECIAL ENVOY to the Middle East Steve Witkoff: It is clear that the legitimization of Hamas as a serious and recognized negotiating partner is underway and perhaps has already been completed, the writer charges.

Gaza today is repeat of 1982 Beirut: Washington is legitimizing Hamas just like the PLO - opinion

Yasser Arafat raises his hand as he declares an independent Palestinian state during the PNC meeting in Algiers. November 15, 1988.

On This Day: Yasser Arafat, PNC, announce Palestinian Declaration of Independence in Algiers


20 years since Camp David summit: There was harm in trying

But historic events are not only successes; failures can also be historic in marking a turning point, a watershed moment. And Camp David was just that.

Barak, Clinton, Arafat at Camp David 311 AP

Churchill’s definition of Belgium: ‘A manufactured country’

“Usury” was the grounds for deportation of the Jews of Antwerp by the Duke of Brabant in 1261, who called for them to be expelled or destroyed.

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL, 1941.

Above the fold - Their loss, not ours

All these years later, not much that we can consider positive has emerged from the Oslo Accords, other, that is, than stopping the money Arafat had been funneling from Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestures beneath a poster of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat

Hamas bans rally to commemorate Yasser Arafat

Fatah and Hamas have been holding indirect negotiations on PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s initiative to hold new Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections.

Yasser Arafat in 1968 at the then PLO head quarters.

Italian city of Palermo names square after Yasser Arafat

In 2014, the mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando also awarded the city's honorary citizenship to Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life-sentences in Israel for terrorism.

Yasser Arafat in 1968 at the then PLO head quarters.

Former Shin Bet head: Arafat smuggled terrorists in his Mercedes

Dichter: "Arafat smuggled terrorists from Egypt two months after PA was established."

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and former Shin Bet head MK Avi Dichter (Likud)

Washington Watch: Paul Findley, ‘Arafat’s best friend’

Yasser Arafat in 1968 at the then PLO head quarters.

The Cohen family of Kfar Darom

Though originally written in 2003 after numerous terror attacks in Kfar Darom, with ongoing rocket attacks in the South, this ‘fable’ is as timely as ever.

KFAR DAROM was a kibbutz within the Gush Katif bloc that was evacuated during the 2005 disengagement. The community has reestablished itself in the Western Negev.

Report: Saudis helped assassinate Arafat, former aide says

The report claimed that Sharon decided to eliminate Arafat because it would be the best way to stop the Palestinian resistance.

Yasser Arafat in 1968 at the then PLO head quarters.

Encountering Peace: Inspire us!

On the plane ride home from the US, prime minister Barak and his team concocted the myth of “no partner” to blame Arafat for not accepting his “take it or leave it offer.”

Women celebrate inside a peace tent erected as part of an event organized by ‘Women Wage Peace,’ near the Jordan River on October 8, 2017