Born in Cairo in 1929, Yasser Arafat was named chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization 40 years later. From this post, he was at the forefront of years of violence, border disputes and the Palestinian liberation movement, all centering on neighboring Israel. Arafat signed a self-governing pact with Israel in 1991, at the Madrid Conference, and together with Israeli leaders made several attempts at lasting peace soon after, notably through the Oslo Accords (1993) and the Camp David Summit of 2000. Stemming from the Oslo Accords, Arafat and Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres shared the Nobel Peace Prize, but the terms were never implemented. Arafat ceded his PLO chairman post in 2003, and died in Paris in 2004. In November 2013, Swiss researchers released a report containing evidence suggesting that his death was the result of poisoning.
The year 1964 was seminal for Arafat, marking the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which brought together a number of groups working toward a free Palestinian state. Three years later, the Six-Day War erupted, with Israel once again pitted against the Arab states. Once again, Israel prevailed, and in the aftermath Arafat’s Fatah gained control of the PLO when he became the chairman of the PLO executive committee in 1969.
The year 1988 marked a change for Arafat and the PLO, when Arafat gave a speech at the United Nations declaring that all involved parties could live together in peace. The resulting peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993, which allowed for Palestinian self-rule and elections in the Palestinian territory (in which Arafat was elected president). (Around this time, in 1990, Arafat, at 61 years of age, married a 27-year-old Palestinian Christian, remaining married until his dying day.)
In 1994, Arafat and Israel’s Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin all received the Nobel Prize for Peace, and the following year they signed a new agreement, Oslo II, which laid the foundation for a string of peace treaties between the PLO and Israeli, including the Hebron Protocol (1997), the Wye River Memorandum (1998), the Camp David Accords (2000) and the "roadmap for peace" (2002).
“The message of peace resonates with everybody,” he says. “Go to the Middle East. Go to Israel and Palestine. You’ll see how many people want peace. It is the leaders that need to be changed.”
Paul supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but says he isn’t sure that will ever happen “because now, nobody trusts American leadership. Without proper American leadership, it’s not going to happen.”
In 2000, when Ehud Barak was Israel’s prime minister and Arafat was the Palestinians’ leader, Paul says he “had hopes” that peace was achievable. I ask Paul for his impressions of Arafat. He responds, “Why talk about a dead man? But [he was] a very unique person. That’s all I can say right now.”
Paul has also met several times with Mahmoud Abbas, the current Palestinian leader. Asked if he believes Abbas is committed to peace, Paul answers, “He really wanted to get the peace deal [with Israel] done. He’s caught in a very unique spot between the West and the East. All the fanatics and extremists in the Muslim community hate him, and all the right-wing Western leaders say he doesn’t do enough. So it’s very hard.”
It’s mandatory for every Christian, Paul explains, “to pray for Israel every day, support Israel in every way, because a young man—a good-looking boy called Jesus—2,000 years ago died for all humanity and shed his precious blood, and commanded all of us to pray for Israel.”
Given the stakes, Paul argues that it’s “a sin” for Christians to fail to vote in the 2016 election. Paul says he’s “asking God if He wants me to campaign in this country,” and unless “God shuts the doors,” the evangelist vows to continue to rally support for “anybody but Hillary.”
“I’m not a typical evangelist, one-sided,” says Paul. “I look out for peace, because millions of innocent people are dying and starving and suffering. My passion on the ground is that I am a practical person. Do what is right, and ask God for guidance.”
