Professor Shlomo Ben Ami, who served as the Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000, revealed on Thursday night a secret that Yasser Arafat told him in a private meeting. According to Professor Ben Ami, Arafat said that: “It was foolish of Israel to leave Lebanon.”
In a live interview that was broadcast on Channel 10, Ben Ami spoke about the former terrorist leader who died 13 years ago and claimed that he was a very complex man. “It was very difficult for us to tell with Arafat whether he actually ever wanted an agreement or not. He was a man who was fluent in double-talk. Having said that, I’m not sure the Palestinian people will ever see another leader like him. He began the national Palestinian movement, the PLO, which in the past was a pet organization of the Arab world. He divested from all of that. It caused them to swell and become far more autonomous. It was essentially Arafat that made the Palestinian question one of the main topics in Middle East politics.”
Ben Ami also revealed some secrets about what really took place behind the scenes in the Camp David talks between Israel and the PLO. According to Ben Ami: “Arafat saw that we took a one-sided divestment out of Lebanon, he was cold and would not give any hugs like he normally did. He came up to me and told me: “You are fools for pulling out of Lebanon in a one-sided action. 500 fighters, who we financed and trained are throwing you out of Lebanon, and I am sitting here and talking with you?”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
Assuming this is true he was clearly saying it for manipulative purposes.(if you left Lebanon for nothing when they aren’t a threat you should be giving me…)
There were Israeli soldiers being killed on a weekly basis in Lebanon. Hezbollah was still around and still occasionally firing Katyusahs into Israel so it definitely did make sense to leave Lebanon.