One might find it understandable that some Israelis living in Milwaukee would find the death last week of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to be cause for enthusiastic celebration.
“I feel happy and relieved,” said Alyssa Cassuto, a teacher at Hillel Academy who has lived in Milwaukee for about four years. “For me, he’s a Haman [the genocide-seeking villain of the biblical Book of Esther], a wicked Haman who doesn’t exist any more, and thank God for that.”
Yet The Chronicle also readily found Israelis with more subdued, even cold sober reactions.
“From my personal view, I don’t believe one should be happy about someone’s death,” said Uri Soroka, an information technology support worker for Marquette University who has lived in Milwaukee for about ten years. “But knowing who he was, I didn’t mourn.”
Instead, “I look at it strictly from a political point of view,” Soroka said. “It’s a turning point in Palestinian history.”
And Alon Galron, emissary from Israel and director of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel Center, said he had “mixed emotions” about the event.
“I’m glad he’s deceased” and “his passing away is a blessing,” but “I didn’t celebrate it,” he said.
“The man was evil, but significant” because “he was a symbol” to the Palestinian Arabs, despite the criticism that some of them had for him. “Even if we hated him, we couldn’t ignore that,” Galron said.
And these Israelis all said they felt change for the better could be on the horizon as a result.
Arafat’s death “gives me a little bit of hope that things could be better now,” said Sivan Sat, a horse -trainer who has lived in the Milwaukee area for six years. “I hope that whoever takes his place will be more open for negotiations and not narrow-minded…. I’m trying to be [optimistic].”
So are Galron and Soroka. They both believe that Israelis and Palestinian Arabs have both come to the conclusion that the other is not going to vanish and they somehow have to get along with each other.
Therefore, “There are hopes that someone reasonable will step in” to replace Arafat, said Galron, “maybe someone who will be a partner to negotiate with. Not a beloved partner, but a realistic partner.”
“There are two options now,” said Soroka. “Either there will be increasing chaos, as different Palestinian factions start killing each other and more Israelis, trying to show who’s stronger; or, on the other hand, maybe someone more moderate will rise and bring the Palestinians together.”
And “I really hope for the second option,” he said.
But Saroka and Galron also strive to be “realistic” in their expectations. “The logical person inside me says [the next Palestinian leader] will be somewhere in the middle,” Saroka said. “Somebody not as moderate as we would like, and not as radical as many Palestinians would like.”
Alyssa Cassuto and her husband Oded, however, see very little hope for change, at least in the short term.
“It doesn’t change anything, I don’t think,” said Oded, an architect. “The problem is Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” two Muslim fundamentalist and terrorist groups uncompromisingly opposed to Israel’s existence. “They’re going to continue to send their suicide bombers.”
Moreover, “the chaos is there [in the Palestinian society] anyway,” Oded continued. “It was there when Arafat was alive and it’s going to be there anyway.”
And Alyssa said, “I don’t know if a difference will come in our generation” because of the way Palestinian children are educated to hate Israel. “As long as we’re seen as the enemy in the eyes of the young people… I hate to be pessimistic, but is there going to be change in one year? I don’t think so.”
Yet it will important for change to happen, said Galron. Chaos would be “bad for the Palestinians and for Israel” and for countries beyond. “That is the unique thing about the Israeli-Palestinian situation; it has influence beyond the Israelis and Palestinians.”
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