Little Orphan Yasser By Sarah Honig (November 23) In Jewish folklore, the epitome of chutzpah is embodied by the man who murders his parents and then begs for the mercy due a poor orphan, alone in an antagonistic world. Yasser Arafat, who violently dispatched Oslo to the dustbin of history, now postures as the innocent victim pleading for protection. Cynically, yet successfully, he managed to bring the old Yiddish parable to life. If he showed us anything, it's that colossal chutzpah pays off colossally. In Arafat's revised tale, the orphan is showered with sympathy and succor - not only from less than fair-minded foreigners. One need only hear our own Shulamit Aloni equate the IDF's half-hearted response to Arafat's offensive with Guernica and Lidice. Her provocative volubility isn't the issue, so much as the fact that she and like-minded Israelis persist in painting Arafat as the pitiable underdog. This pose is the central pivot in the Arab world's psychological blitzkrieg against the Jewish state. When Little Orphan Yasser is granted space and airtime by our media, he's aided and abetted. Those who repeatedly screened his teary prerecorded lamentation for Leah Rabin were playing into his hands. The homage to Leah was supposed to earn Arafat an invitation to her shiva. What a melodramatic coup it would've been if the golden-hearted orphan had crossed into hostile territory on an altruistic humanitarian mission. Oh how that would have tugged the heartstrings and highlighted his halo! Arafat reportedly violated one term of the agreement when he didn't broadcast his condolence video to his own crowd. Nonetheless, one can see his point of view. His production exclusively targeted Israeli audiences, though because of simultaneous Arafat activities not all Israelis could enjoy it. Residents of Gilo, for instance, had to miss his consummate performance because, just as Arafat went on air, they were busy dodging bullets fired at them by the peacemaker's henchmen. But, such minor hitches notwithstanding, the virtuous orphan scored a big hit. Well deserved too, considering his meticulous attention to detail. He took care to appear under a giant picture of the Dome of the Rock, as if to underscore his undying claim to Jerusalem. He made it a point not to opt for a more neutral background nor to attire himself in civilian threads. There was more. Arafat didn't just place a symbolic flower on Leah's grave. He solemnly stressed that his was a flower from "Falastin's soil." It hadn't escaped his attention that his reference might be a tad offensive to those who identify the location of the flowerbed as the Land of Israel, renamed Palestina by the ancient Romans in a deliberate attempt to humiliate and anger the defeated Judeans. (At the same time they dubbed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina - another moniker Arafat might wish to exploit). It's difficult to escape the impression that, while ostensibly sharing our grief, Arafat too was out to humiliate and anger. But no matter how Arafat humiliates some Israelis, they will not get angry. They'll let nothing get in the way of their dream of doing business some day with the unfortunate orphan. There's almost nothing they'll not forgive him. When buses exploded on Israel's streets, Yitzhak Rabin didn't accuse Arafat, but vented his exasperation on his own domestic critics, calling them "Hamas collaborators." His widow received Arafat graciously in her home, grateful for the magnanimity of his shiva visit and his effusive flattery. She warmly embraced the blameless, agreeable peace partner, while staunchly refusing to shake Binyamin Netanyahu's hand. In her last days, as Arafat's latest intifada raged, she summoned her remaining strength to take Ehud Barak severely to task for not being kinder and gentler on the well-meaning orphan. She wasn't unique, though. Israeli reporters last week went on a Tanzim-sponsored press tour. Arafat's journalists would have never likewise played Israel's game. But even amplifying the message of our would-be destroyers isn't the worst of it. Some Israelis seem bent on bolstering enemy morale and resolve. Only days before the deliberate attack on Kfar Darom's schoolchildren, Peace Now ran virulent anti-settlement ads in four Israeli papers - one in Hebrew, two in English and another in Arabic. But it also saw fit to feature the same ad in a Ramallah paper, one which likely caters to the very mob that butchered the two lost Israeli reservists. Peace Now's latest line is that the reenergized campaign to blacken the settlers is for their own good, including preaching to the already-converted Ramallah rabble. Out of fraternal concern for the settlers' safety, Peace Now wants them evacuated forthwith. Judenrein territory per force precludes flash points. The same logic might indeed apply to the entire state of Israel. Perhaps we're all in the wrong place. Being where they shouldn't, according to Peace Now logic, cost Kfar Darom's three young Cohen siblings their legs and killed two of their teachers - Miriam Amitai and Gavriel Biton. A few days earlier, mother of five Sarah Leisha was shot gangland style for the same crime. That's probably why the prime minister didn't deliver a stirring eulogy at Sarah's funeral, as he had at Leah's. Maybe that's why foreign dignitaries didn't pay her their last respects and even Hillary Clinton didn't consider Sarah sufficiently worthwhile for another publicity stunt. Unlike Leah, Sarah wasn't one of the "beautiful people." She wasn't a trendy celebrity - just an ordinary teacher mourned by her shaken pupils. Their absence from school, however, did excite Labor MK Ophir Pines to impassioned protests. He thought it unconscionable for youngsters to miss class merely because their teacher had been gunned down. No wonder Arafat didn't mention her in his compassionate tape. He had every reason to laud Leah but put Sarah out of all our minds. Leah couldn't have been more forthcoming toward the forlorn orphan. Sarah's slaying by his assassins, however, exposes him as the fellow who shouts plaintively for help while inflicting savage blows on his horrified parents.