Weekly Standard executive editor and FOXNews all-star, Fred Barnes, takes some time to remind us just how Yasser Arafat fouled up the Mideast “peace process” (read, via Rosett’s law: “Israeli capitulation to ill-conceived diplomatic half-measures):

A wave of forgetfulness has engulfed the issue of Middle East turmoil between Israel and the Palestinians. Arab moderates whom Secretary of State Colin Powell visited this week, European leaders upset by Israel’s conduct, the international media (including American reporters), United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, even Powell himself — all have been hit by memory loss. What they’ve forgotten is practically everything that preceded Israel’s military incursion in the West Bank. They’ve forgotten the context for today’s events, a context that illustrates why the world’s sudden concern for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is at best misplaced, at worst likely to lead to more terrorism and violence.

Barnes proceeds to enumerate five “forgotten items” that lead directly to the current state of being in Israel and the West Bank. A nice mini-lesson in recent history for the Jak Kings of the world…

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