That's from a candid statement by the head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terrorists in an interview carried in Ha'aretz on April 4, 2008.
since his death, Arafat's acolytes have been quite open about his central role in the terrorism for which "Palestinian" has become a by-word:Back in Abu Amar's day [Yasser Arafat's nom de guerre], we had a plan, there was a strategy, and we would carry his orders...Everything that was done in the intifada was done according to Arafat's instructions...
Mahmoud Zahar:
In a syndicated Associated Press report issued yesterday, one of the highest-up thugs in the Hamas terror hierarchy, Mahmoud Zahar, is quoted telling Gaza City students that when Yasser Arafat realized negotiations with Israel were failing ten years ago, he "recommended to Hamas to carry out a number of military operations in the heart of the Hebrew state."
The AP report says it has confirmation of the closed-door session, and says Zahar declined to deny them. It says other Hamas leaders refused to discuss the statements on the record, and several privately expressed displeasure but did not deny them. Zahar's statement were made Tuesday - the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 28, 2000, eruption of violence that became known as the second intifada.
A far more reliable source, the Jerusalem Post's peerless Khaled Abu Toameh, writes that this is the first time a senior Hamas source has conceded that some of the suicide-bombing murders carried out by its agents during the second intifada, which erupted 10 years ago, were ordered by Arafat. Until now, it was widely believed that Arafat had only ordered his Fatah militiamen to carry out terror attacks on Israel.
There never was a peace
