The signing of the Oslo Accords in Washington, DC, Sept. 13, 1993. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

There is one point that I made in a speech yesterday that I hadn’t thought of before preparing for it.

In 1974, after several years of airplane hijackings and other terror attacks, Yasser Arafat went to the UN and gave a speech. The architect of terror suddenly became an honored diplomat.

The most famous phrase from his speech was, “Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”

Think about what he was saying. He was saying that the world must do what Palestinians want or else there will be more terror.

It was a threat!

A normal man can hold an olive branch or a gun — or both. A normal man makes the decision whether he wants to be peaceful or violent, whether he embraces peace or war.

Arafat was saying that the decision as to whether he will drop the olive branch is up to the world and whether they will pressure Israel to give in to his terrorist demands. Arafat refuses to drop the “freedom fighter’s gun” and his choice to pretend to also hold an olive branch depends entirely on other people doing his bidding.

It’s a mafia-style “offer you can’t refuse,” and the nations of the world gave him a standing ovation.

It was part of a larger Palestinian pattern of using threats to get the world to pressure Israel, and it has worked brilliantly — right up to the present day.

Elder of Ziyon has been blogging about Israel and the Arab world for a really long time now. He also controls the world, but deep down you already knew that.