An Al Jazeera documentary and a statement from Yasir Arafat’s widow has led to a decision by the Palestinian Authority to exhume the former leader of the PA and to conduct an investigation into the cause of his death in 2004. While Palestinians have often spoken of Arafat’s demise being the result of an alleged Israeli plot, were such a probe to be honest, the Jewish state would probably have nothing to fear. More to the point, any discussion of Arafat’s death will necessarily involve highlighting what he did before he expired in Lausanne, Switzerland. And that is not something the Palestinians or their apologists ought to welcome.
Arafat’s death at the age of 75 was something of a mystery and predictably fueled conspiracy theories. Suspicion that foul play was involved will only be heightened if Al Jazeera’s allegation is accurate that his clothes contained trace amounts of polonium, a radioactive substance generally associated with assassinations carried out by agents of the former Soviet Union and the current Putin regime in Russia. That helps to remind us that of all the players in the Middle East drama at the time of his demise, Israel was probably the only one that had an interest in keeping him alive rather than putting an end to his pathetic misrule of the territories. Hamas, his Fatah underlings as well as the host of enemies Arafat made during his career as the world’s number one terrorist, are all far more likely suspects than Israel. However, if Arafat is to be dug up, the focus on the mystery of his death ought to also revive some interest in his criminal career that provides an appropriate context to his ignominious death.
It bears remembering that at the time he fell ill in his besieged compound in Ramallah, Israel had good reason to keep the old terrorist safe and sound. So long as Arafat was the face of Palestinian nationalism, his bloodthirsty reputation guaranteed the Jewish state a degree of sympathy that it lost once he was replaced by the more presentable Mahmoud Abbas, though the latter was no less obdurate in his refusal to make peace than his predecessor.
Arafat more or less invented modern international terrorism in the 1970s. But even after supposedly embracing peace with his historic handshake with Yitzhak Rabin on the White House Lawn in September 1993, Arafat had continued to promote and subsidize terror attacks against Israelis, Jews and Americans. When then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered him an independent state in almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and a share of Jerusalem at Camp David in 2000 and Taba in 2001, he turned the offers down flat. His answer to these peace initiatives was a terrorist war of attrition, the so-called second intifada that cost the lives of more than 1,000 Israelis and far more Palestinians.
In the aftermath of that debacle, Arafat was isolated and humiliated, living in the ruins of his compound in Ramallah after Israeli forces complied with American requests to spare the Palestinian leader. At this stage, he was unlikely to be able to do Israel any more harm, but both Hamas and his Fatah underlings had good reason to want him gone.
Hamas knew that without Arafat, their campaign to oust Fatah from Gaza and launch a long march to Palestinian power could never begin. Though Arafat ruled Fatah and the territories with an iron hand and the help of 17 separate and competing intelligence agencies, the mainstream Palestinian party and its terrorist thugs understood that recovery from the intifada required the imperious and corrupt Arafat to exit the stage. The bottom line is that a lot of people wanted Arafat dead. But Israel was the only party that had a vested interest in keeping him alive.
The puzzle of his death has so many pieces it is unlikely we will ever get to the bottom of the story, especially because Palestinian politics will require that Israel be branded as the guilty party even if all the evidence points in a different direction. The role of Suha Arafat, his much younger widow who has continued to live like a queen in Paris in the years since these events, is also complicated because, as Ha’aretz notes, she refused his doctors her permission for them to conduct a liver biopsy as he lay on his deathbed.
But no matter who was responsible for his death, there should be no doubt that the man who died in France November 2004 was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands, the introduction of new and fiendish methods of terrorism and for preventing any hope of peace between the Palestinians and Israel. The Palestinians would do better to examine their own failed and distorted political culture that makes peace impossible rather than worry about who killed the man who put them in the impossible position in which they still find themselves.
There is obviously an agenda behind this latest anti-Israel campaign of Al Jazeera. n nAs others have pointed out, this charge that Arafat was poisoned by Polonium was first made by the rabidly antisemitic "Israel Shamir" in 2006. n nIt should be recalled that both Suha Arafat and the PLO itself would not permit an autopsy on Arafat's body. n nArafat's medical file is similarly locked up in France since Suha Arafat will not give her permission to release it. n nThe question has to be asked, why is Al Jazeera promoting this conspiracy theory now? The answer probably lies somewhere in Doha and their support for Hamas as opposed to Abbas. For this reason, do not look for Arafat to be dug up anytime soon. n nWhat this should remind us of, in addition to Arafat's crimes, is that when the Western press relies on Al Jazeera as a legitimate source of news ( and here I'm looking at the NYT in particular), the news consumer is being manipulated into supporting the various machinations of repressive and often times Islamist Middle Eastern governments.
Ding Dong the terrorist is dead ! Do they think there is something to gain from this? The only thing they are doing is more incitement. That is a crime in Israel. Maybe it should be a crime here like libel and defamation. I would not want to limit speech but the biggest poison to the mind of man is demonization and incitement to hatred. I don't care who does it, it is just wrong. "Thou shall not bear false witness". n nIf you can't win with your ideas and facts accept your loss and get better ideas. Don't demonize your opponent. Please listen to me Mr. President!
Polonium is used by the Russians? You would not know that from the article by Joe Federman, that appears to give credence to the PA's rantings. And if anyone points it out, I'm sure the usual sources will dutifully report that the Palestinians charge that Israel deliberately used a Russian tactic in order to cast suspicion elsewhere. Those devious Je — er, Israelis, you know. (Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.) n
"Palestinian politics will require that Israel be branded as the guilty party even if all the evidence points in a different direction." Even if all the evidence? How about ESPECIALLY all the evidence. And it will suprise me not a bit if Amnesty International, Reuters, the UN, the EU,HRC,the BBC, the AP, the AFP and the whole alpahebet soup of the PA's willing tools embrace the foregone verdict. n nThis would not be the first time the Jewish State has been blamed for crimes of others, and even crimes that never happeed. Muhamed Al Dura. The Jenin 'massacre'. The supposed murder of innocent, peaceful armed bloodthirsty terrorists on the Mari Mavra. The Jenin massacre. The death of civilians whose homes were being used as artillery and rocket bases by Hamas or Hisbollah. The disappearance of Judge Crater (okay, I threw that one in for good measure). The mortgage bubble. (I'm not making that one up.) 9/11. The list goes on.
Isn't AIDS the most likely culprit?
n"Karmon said that the half life of the substance would make it impossible for polonium to have been discovered at such high levels if it had been used to kill Arafat eight years ago. n nAccording to the Al-Jazeera report, polonium has a half-life of 138 days, "meaning that half of the substance decays roughly every four-and-a-half months." n nAnd yet, eight years after Arafat's death, the Swiss scientists reported finding polonium levels of 54mBq and 180mBq on his belonging, considered to be high levels. n n"If it had been used to for poisoning, minimal levels should be seen now. Yet much higher levels were found. Someone planted the polonium much later," Karmon said. n n"Because of the half life of the substance, the conclusion is that the polonium is much more fresh," he added" nLet's see if the AP and Joseph Federman report that, or at most report it as a generic Israeli denial. n
The above was part 2 of a part 2 comment. The first part included a link to the story at Jerusalem Post but for some reason is awaiting moderation.
on the other hand, if polonium really were present on arafat's things when he died 8 years ago, the amount would have had to have been huge, given the 138 days half life. But wouldn't a huge amount have affected other people around arafat, including his close cronies and the French doctors who treated him?
During Arafat's long career most of his sidekicks and associates were killed, picked off by the Israelis. But he, somehow, always survived. It was said he never slept in the same house twice. n nHe should have saved himself the trouble. The Mossad knows when it has a good thing going. If there had to be a PLO and it had to have a leader, from the Israeli perspective, Arafat was the ideal man. Central casting could not have found a more hideous representative and symbol of the Palestinian cause, not just in his looks, but in his excited and repulsive way of speaking. Israel would have gladly paid to keep Arafat healthy and on the job to 120. n n Arafat was the one Palestinian terrorist far more valuable alive than dead.
” During Arafat’s long career most of his sidekicks and associates were killed, picked off by the Israelis. But he, somehow, always survived. ”
Please don’t forget that the US saved him in Lebanon in the early 1980s thanks to Baker & co.’s realpolitik.