The Middle East: Fact or Fantasy?

Cal Thomas | Syndicated columnist | Published: May 06, 2002

The Middle East: Fact or Fantasy?

In the Middle East, facts mean nothing to some people. Did you see the tape of the Palestinian man being carried on a stretcher in Jenin as if he were dead? He fell of the stretcher - twice - and climbed back on. The next day the Palestinians said they were shooting a movie. Sure.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is meeting with President Bush today. Sharon will present him with other facts - captured documents from Jenin and Ramallah that prove Yasser Arafat has ordered terrorism. It won't matter to the State Department, Europeans and other apologists for Arafat. They think peace is a one-way street. Arafat has never been held accountable for all of the other agreements he has broken. If he signs another one and breaks it, he won't live up to that one either. He violates -- and Israel gets blamed.

Arafat should be exiled. As former Prime Minister Netanyahu told me recently, Arafat is irrelevant. His is a dictatorship. Israel is a democracy. That's a fact! What else needs to be said? I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.

The Middle East: Fact or Fantasy?