From Outlaws to Heroes

Throughout history, views of certainpersonalities change from villains to heroes or fromterrorists/militants to freedom fighters.For example, both Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Shamir, who later became prime ministers of Israel, were once wanted terrorists by the British.Ramush Haradinajof Kosovo also comes to mind. As an ex-rebel leader in Kosovo his actions were questioned. He was recently elected as a prime minister for Kosovo.Nelson Mandela,a founder of the African National Congress (ANC), was jailed as aterrorist and traitor. He was later freed, and then elected as thefirst black president of South Africa, and a Nobel Prize laureate. Heis now seen as a beacon for freedom and independance of oppressedpeople. Here is the ANC biography for him, and the Nobel Prize profile. Yasser Arafatis also one of those. As the leader of the Palestinian LiberationOrganization (PLO), he was a militant resistance movement, with acts ofbombing in many parts of the world. Later he made peace with Israel,and shook hands with Rabin, the Israeli prime minister. His misfortunewas that he was much maligned in U.S. and Israeli media specially after9/11. Both his arch-enemy Ariel Sharon and G.W. Bush unilaterallydeclared him irrelevant. He also won the Nobel Prize for peace.