During the next several months, as indignation and investigation concerning the President's vulgar personal liasons remain at center stage, it will be the consequences of his vastly more disgraceful diplomatic relationship with Yasir Arafat that threaten renewed violence against the United States. Yasir Arafat has been an honored guest at the White House on several different occasions. This is because, according to international law, the failure to arrest and prosecute terorists is codified as a specific crime, and because international law is an integral part of the law of the United States. For the United States, the Nuremberg obligation to bring terrorists to trial are doubly binding. This is because these obligations represent not only current expectations of international law, but also the binding obligations of a Higher Law embedded in this country's basic legal traditions.
All international law is part of the law of the United States.
But let us return to Yasir Arafat, President Clinton's sometime guest at the White House. Not at all. Lest we forget, this same honored guest of Mr. Clinton also gave his blessings to crimes of war, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity committed by Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. Yes, indeed, the Lewinsky affair is a nasty blot on the presidency and a defilement of our highest national office. Yet, in comparison with other Clinton wrongdoings, it is a relatively minor transgression.