Rudy Giuliani’s Foreign Affairs essay — with its emphasis on Palestinian political and security reform prior to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (“Too much emphasis has been placed on brokering negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians — negotiations that bring up the same issues again and again”) — drew 1,704 comments at LGF.
LGF called the essay “refreshingly realistic,” which caused me to go back and review an earlier occasion of refreshing realism — Giuliani’s ejection of the uninvited Yasser Arafat from
Here is the story, as told contemporaneously in the pages of the New York Times (which gives a flavor of the event as it unfolded in real time):
1. NYT Article by Barbara Crossette, October 23, 1995:
“Yasir Arafat, once Washington’s most reviled guerrilla leader, who came to the 1974 General Assembly with a holster on his hip and offered his audience the choice of an olive branch or a gun – and who, denied an American visa in 1988, caused the Assembly to decamp to Geneva to hear him out – recalled that history today as he appealed for help in creating an independent Palestinian state next to Israel. He was the only speaker to wear a military uniform.
“I came to you 21 years ago as a fighter for freedom, liberation and independence, carrying with me the torments of my struggling people,” he said. “Today, I come to you with a heart filled with love and peace – now that the olive branch has adorned the peace of the brave.”
2. NYT Article by Lizette Alvarez, October 24, 1995:
In a cordial session peppered even with occasional jokes, Yasir Arafat, chairman of the
Palestine Liberation Organization, met with more than 100 prominent American Jews yesterday at the Bnai Zion building in midtown. Manhattan
Mr. Arafat spoke briefly and then answered questions, emphasizing, like a season diplomat, the kinship between Palestinians and Jews. “Were not only cousins, we’re partners in peace,” he said.
Some of those present warmed to him modestly. “He’s got a very good sense of humor, by the way,” said
Levine, a spokesman for many Jewish organizations. Israel
Mr. Arafat talked about compromise, and his desire to find a peaceful resolution of the differences between the Palestinians and
. He sought to allay the fears caused by his use of the word jihad; he said it should be interpreted not to mean holy war but, instead, effort, attempt or struggle. . . . Israel
Last night at
, Mr. Arafat was again the center of attention. Many other luminaries, from Yitzak Rabin and Walter Cronkite to Mr. Zuckerman and Bianca Jagger, were among the 2,000 guests at the United Nations-sponsored performance of Beethoven’s ninth Symphony by the Lincoln Center Philharmonic. But it was Mr. Arafat whom a swarm of autograph-seekers surrounded in the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall. New York
3. NYT Editorial, October 25, 1995:
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who evicted Yasir Arafat from a city-sponsored concert for United Nations dignitaries on Monday night, clearly lacks the diplomatic touch.
Mr. Arafat showed up at
even though Mr. Giuliani had declared him unwelcome at city-sponsored events. The Mayor dispatched two aides to tell the P.L.O. leader to leave. Lincoln Center
Mr. Arafat may have intended to provoke a scene, but
would have looked far nobler if Mr. Giuliani had displayed better manners than his unwanted guests. . . . The Mayor’s insult was especially ill timed, because the chairman of the New York Palestine Liberation Organization has, at some risk, become a key player in the American-sponsoredMiddle East peace process.
The Mayor explained his action as a protest against past P.L.O. terrorism. Perhaps he thought he was reflecting the views of Jewish New Yorkers. Yet earlier in the day Mr. Arafat was the invited guest of prominent American Jewish leaders. He is the holder of a Nobel Peace Prize, a fact Mr. Giuliani dismissed yesterday. The Mayor argued that Mr. Arafat’s eviction would somehow make
Middle East diplomacy “more realistic.” In fact, he has needlessly embarrassed the city at a moment when’s hospitality should be allowed to shine. New York
4. NYT Article by David Firestone, October 25, 1995:
A day after Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani exprelled Yasir Arafat from a concert for world leaders at Lincoln Center, the Clinton Administration sharply criticized the Mayor yesterday for what Washington officials called an embarrassing breach of international diplomacy.
Mr. Giuliani, clearly relishing the controversy, insisted that he could never forgive and play host to Mr. Arafat even though the Plaestinian leader has been embraced as a peacemaker by the Israeli and
Governments. United States
A spokesman for the
United States Mission to the United Nations said the Administraiton made it clear to the city that Mr. Arafat, the chairman of theLiberation Organization, could be invited to local events. Mr. Clinton invited him to a White House reception on Sunday. . . . Palestine
But the Mayor, explaining his decision yesterday, called Mr. Arafat a murderer and terrorist, and said he was not impressed by the fact that Mr. Arafat had twice been invited to the White House to sign the Middle East peace accords, or that he shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I would not invite Yasir Arafat to anything, anywhere, anytime, anyplace,” Mr. Giuliani said at a news conference yesterday. “I don’t forget.”
Mr. Giuliani said his antipathy toward Mr. Arafat – like his antipathy toward the Cuban leader Fidel Castro – went back to his days as a Federal prosecutor. As
Attorney, he investigated several terrorist incidents to which the P.L.O. was linked, including the hijacking in 1985 of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. As far as he was concerned, the Mayor said, the statute of limitations on those incidents has not run out. . . . United States
The Mayor said yesterday that when he was told that Mr. Arafat had entered the concert hall, he told his chief of staff, Randy Mastro, to ask him to leave.
“Randy told him that he wasn’t invited, he wasn’t welcome, and we would prefer that he leave,” Mr. Giuliani said. “He stayed for a while, then he left.”
5. Postscript: NYT Editorial, March 12, 1996:
[The Mayor] told Israelis on Sunday to be more cautious in their dealings with Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader.
“Don’t’ go romanticizing,” the Mayor warned during his visit to
. “Remember if you are asking something of him you need more proof that it is going to be carried out than if you asked that of someone else.” Jerusalem
By tacitly criticizing the policies of Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Mr. Giuliani came close to meddling in the Israeli election campaign. Even as the May was speaking, Mr. Peres was claiming some initial success in his campaign to get Mr. Arafat to crack down hard on the Islamic terrorist groups. . . .
The Mayor’s clumsiness does not come entirely as a surprise. Last fall he rudely evicted Mr. Arafat from a
concert during the United Nations 50th anniversary commemoration . . . Lincoln Center
Imagine what the New York Times would have said if Giuliani had been rude enough to call a nuclear superpower an “evil empire.”
LGF may have coined a new foreign policy category. There are realists, and then there are refreshing realists.