Yasser Arafat

"His passing has to be a positive sign for future Middle East peace prospects, because under his leadership things could not have been worse."

Rabbi Marvin Hier, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles

"Yasir Arafat's legacy is one of terrorism and failed leadership. Instead of building a state for the Palestinian people, he focused on ways to destroy the Jewish state of Israel."

Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League

"With him disappears the man of courage and conviction who, for 40 years, has incarnated the Palestinians' combat for recognition of their national rights."

French President Jacques Chirac

"The Palestinian people, both within and outside the Palestinian Territories, have lost a historic leader and a democratically elected president, whose devotion and single-minded commitment to the Palestinian national cause throughout his life was never in doubt,"

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, president of the EU