PORNOGRAPHY

The only lifelong terrorist to win a Nobel Peace Prize lies comatose in Paris, with his well-heeled wife - for years unwilling to share his privations in Ramallah - screaming at Palestinian leaders on Al Jazeera television that "they're trying to bury [him] alive!" More likely, they may be trying to learn in what secret accounts he buried millions of dollars. Israelis should remember Arafat's one "good deed": four years ago, a soon-to-be ousted Israeli prime minister and a Nobel-hungry U.S. president made the Palestinian Authority an incredibly generous and dangerous offer: dividing Jerusalem, handing over almost all of the West Bank, and even partially establishing a "right of return" for some Palestinians who fled an Arab invasion of the new Jewish state a half-century ago.

After Arafat, Hope
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
The New York Times

Personally, we are really sorry for the family members of Mr. Safire who have no choice but to live with him day after day, year after year. It must not be pleasant. We would like to express them all our solidarity and compassion. Professionally, another sign of the Times.