| Oh, this'll certainly make peace more likely... |
 PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas marked the end of 40 days of mourning Tuesday with lavish praise for the "eternal" Yasser Arafat, vowing the Palestinian patriarch would one day be buried in his beloved Jerusalem. "No words of homage are sufficient to commemorate his memory," Abbas said in a speech inside Arafat's old West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah, known as the Muqataa, as thousands of supporters gathered in the courtyard outside. "Arafat led our people to the doorstep of liberty and independence. Abu Ammar (Arafat) remains eternal in the minds and collective memory of our people and the Arab and Islamic people," he added.
| I guess he has to say stoopid things like that to get elected... |
Abbas, favourite to succeed Arafat as Palestinian Authority president, echoed one of Arafat's most famous refrains by pledging: "The day will come when a child raises the flag of Palestine from the walls of Jerusalem." Arafat, who died on November 11, was buried in the grounds of the Muqataa after Israel refused permission for his interment in east Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to have the capital of their promised future state.
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