Though much of the world regarded him as a tyrant, Saddam Hussein was mourned by Palestinians Saturday as a generous patron who remained one of their staunchest allies.
Saddam had rejected peace with Israel, sent money to the families of suicide bombers and welcomed many Palestinian refugees to Iraq.
"We heard of his martyrdom, and I swear to God we were deeply shaken from within," said Khadejeh Ahmad from the Qadora refugee camp in the West Bank. "Nobody was as supportive or stood with the Palestinians as he did."
Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bethlehem opened a "house of condolence," where dozens of people gathered on white chairs to drink black coffee and mourn the executed dictator.
There was at least one parade in his honor in Gaza, where some Palestinians displayed a poster with his image next to that of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Amazing.
Just when I think that the Sunni Arabs of Iraq are making a go of being the stupidest and most self-destructive people on the face of this Earth, the Palestinians remind me of why they remain number one on this score.
Yes, Saddam was so tremendously supportive of the Palestinians. He urged them to take on the Israelis without doing so himself by paying money for dead Palestinians ($35 million in total). Saddam tossed the Palestinians some spare change and just laughed as the fawning Palestinians died and lost and slipped further into poverty.
And Saddam violated the biggest rule of all that our enlightened foreign policy realists have made up--he suppressed a Kurdish revolt, invaded Iran, and invaded Kuwait all without "first solving the Palestinian problem" as we are often lectured we must do.
So get out those big foam fingers, Palestinians, and proclaim your number one status! Only when the Sunni Arabs of Iraq actually succeed in getting themselves expelled from Iraq will they stand even a chance of demoting the Palestinians from the top slot.
