[Agamemnon]

There are Palestinians/Muslims buried there. But why wouldn't a devout Muslim want to be buried in Mecca? or Medina?

Does it matter? If he wants to have his remains rest there, thats what he wants (I don't even know if he wants this). I'm sure he'd have his reasons, and to him, they're probably valid.

This is about politics. You can say my analogies are not good, but how hard is it to make the leap - one side's freedom fighter wants to have his hounored grave in an area disputed by two sides. The other side sees that as an affront and unacceptable. Arafat also saw himself as the keeper of the Church of the Sepulchure (sp?) would the church allow him to be buried in that yard?

Yes, it is about politics. Rather than extend olive branches, the Israelis would rather (in your scenario) draw more lines in the sand about what is 'unacceptable'. How can peace ever be possible here if Israel can't bend on something that is (relatively, and in the grand scheme of things) a pretty small issue. One way to alleviate the problem is to say that no one can be buried there anymore. That would be a non-racist, non-nationalist way to deal with the situation. It also wouldn't happen, because of 'politics'.

Now you are making the judgement call. Does that mean that the other posters who do not live in the US shouldn't make judgement calls on GWB? Or because I have not sat at the same table as Arafat, I do not know what I am talking about?
Conversations with Friends & Family living there, academics, journalists, speakers on both sides, Palestinian visitors that speak about their experiances visiting their families in the disputed territories and terror attack survivors (I am a terror attack survivor - Jul. '90) - as well as news sources and time spent in Israel, lead me to feel that I can say that Arafat should not under any curcumstances be buried at the Tmple Mount with conviction.

All I'm saying is that to rule Arafat's burial there out means that there are higher priorities for the Israeli leadership than peace.

If peace is the goal, then why not extend the olive branch? Don't you think there are hated individuals on both sides of any conflict? Its not like Arafat is the first fighter to be hated by the other side... by an extremely long shot. If peace is ever going to happen in this region, its got to be because both sides seek ways to find initiatives for peace, not always waiting for the other to commit fully first.

If keeping Arafat off the Temple is so important that its worth more bloodshed, power to you I guess.