For those of you that don't know what to think about the death of Yasser Arafat (I am looking at you, Ginger. And though she hasn't said anything to me, I am sure you are in that boat too, Krystle. :]), here are some helpful stories:

From the Boston Globe:

God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a creature so evil -- as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity.

And from the Wall Street Journal:

As the world waits to see whether the current, fragile cease-fire will put an end to nine months of low-level warfare between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the past may prove instructive. For, in essence, we've been here before. And regardless of what one thinks of Mr. Arafat from a moral standpoint--is he simply a terrorist, or does he come, as he famously told the United Nations in 1974, "bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun"?--his history, wherever he has gained a territorial foothold, has not been that of a reliable or even rational partner, even with potential Arab allies. His history is one of pushing too far.

Read both. Hat tip to Dean Esmay for the links.

Also, for a background on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, go check out QWERTY.