Palestinian representatives said [Arafat] is in a reversible coma that doctors induced to perform a biopsy. But medical experts said doctors generally do not induce comas for biopsies. They said a coma is much more likely the result of the illness itself.
And we’re supposed to believe the Palestinian version of the Camp David talks? [The New York Review of Books did.-ed. Well, then it must be so.]
MEANWHILE: According to Maariv International (like Debka, not always reliable as it is interesting), Arafat… via a document handed to Suha [with a new charge card?-ed.]… has named hardliner Farouk Kadoumi as his successor. If true, good-bye Abu Mazen, hello more terror and bloodshed. At least you can say this about Arafat, he was a psycho-sexual sadist toward his own people to the end. Anyone who says anything good posthumously about this man is morally deranged.
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17 Comments
1. Kevin P:Roger:
Arafat never gave up his original desire to drive the Jews into the sea. He donned the peacefull statesman costume the way a child dons a Holloween costume. It was a con job from the start, so he could get back into Palestine and set up his usual terrorist operations. He has sabatoged every compromise deal because his true goal was not a seperate Palestinian state but the goal he trumpeted at the start of his bloody carreer, the elimination of Israel. The fact that he chose a hard liner as a replacement just makes his con job more obvious.If any US politician tries to put pressure on Israel to let him be buried in Jerusalem that pol should be denounced in every synagogue, church and editorial page in the country. Sadly I fear there is a large portion of this country that will try to make a post mortem hero out of this bloody thug.
Nov 5, 2004 - 9:59 pm 2. ordi:Man, can Yasser party!
http://tokyoblonde.blogspot.com/2004/11/bring-out-your-dead.html
Nov 6, 2004 - 1:42 am 3. jedrury:Love the poster !
After reading the thread, thug transition was easier in “The Godfather” and “The Sopranos.”
Nov 6, 2004 - 4:28 am 4. Terrye:It remains to be seen just who the next leader of the Pals will be, but it seems that there has been a striking lack of interest thus far in his fate.
Maybe they are getting tired of living in Arafat’s drama.
Nov 6, 2004 - 4:46 am 5. rastajenk:I wonder what the chances are of an internal power struggle getting violent. This might all come to a sooner conclusion if they started picking each other off themselves. I also wonder where the ISM, campus peaceniks, and other self-descrubed informed intelligentsia come down on all this.
Nov 6, 2004 - 5:26 am 6. alcibiades:God, this is just so Medieval.
The Regents plotting the succession behind the throne while the King lies Dead. Frankly, Suha’s no softie. It’s quite conceivable that she and a few others plotted this thing up among themselves because they didn’t want a moderate in power ?ñ as their final hour coup. And in return, there’s a deal to keep feeding her dough.
OTOH, it’s also pretty easy to imagine Yasser poking one more thumb in the eye of the entire world. He’ll lose no opportunity to lose an opportunity even while dead. Now there’s a record to marvel at.
But finally, hardliner like that, there’s no necessity for the Israeli’s to let him in. Let the man stay in Tunis and head the PLO from there.
And I love all this paternalism about how the Palestinians are such mental children that they need days of Arafat lingering near death to accustom themselves to the idea that an old, sick man might die. When really it’s all a pretense about the succession fight and the fight over who gets the money.
Nov 6, 2004 - 5:59 am 7. Lola:Yuuuuck. This is goulish. I wouldn’t be suprised if the Israeli takes some sort of preemptive strike if it turns out that the new leader, whoever he is, is een more hardline. Easier to do it right after the official death announcement than to give him 6 months to coalesce power.
Nov 6, 2004 - 7:28 am 8. Rick Ballard:This should be a good test of the Mossad. If they can nail Kadoumi quickly then Arafat’s hand from the grave move will be moot. At the moment, Kadoumi is just one of a thousand terrorist thugs. Carter, Clinton & Don Kofi haven’t annointed him nor has he offered the ceremonial bribe to Chirac that would elevate his status with the EUnuch community.
Take him out now, fellas. He’s earned it, many want it, and no one will regret it.
Nov 6, 2004 - 7:28 am 9. Jamie Irons:My late mother-in-law, who died at 85 in 2000, was a brilliant autodidact who grew up in Brooklyn. She pegged Arafat for what he was before anyone paid him any attention.
She wasn’t fooled by Camp David or any of his other charades.
Twice as brilliant and ten times as well-read and informed as your average “intellectual,” she was testimony to how much one does not lose by not graduating from college.
Can’t wait for the New York Times assessment.
Jamie Irons
Nov 6, 2004 - 7:32 am 10. PeterUK:I’d like to se another headline:
KIM JUNG-ILL.
Nov 6, 2004 - 7:46 am 11. Jamie Irons:PeterUK
You’re such a wag.
Jamie Irons
Nov 6, 2004 - 8:22 am 12. richard mcenroe:Since Arafat is supposedly dying of AIDS this is clearly just another case of red-state homophobia acting out…
oops, sorry. I was channeling “real” NY writers…
Nov 6, 2004 - 8:33 am 13. Charlie (Colorado):I wonder what the chances are of an internal power struggle getting violent.
1.000000
Approximately.
Nov 6, 2004 - 8:38 am 14. Charlie (Colorado):Alcibiades, I don’t think it’s as much about who gets the money as it’s about can they find the money?
I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but Arafat has always been very cagey with the funds — in fact, when he had the plane crash, there was a real problem in that he kept all the accounts and information in a little black notebook that was always on him … and it had been lost.
I’d bet nobody knows where the money is but Yasser.
That might be why he survived, not just his recent death, but the preceding 20 years.
Nov 6, 2004 - 8:43 am 15. Kevin P:Jamie:
I have no doubt that the NYT will give Sharon and Israel the “this is the time to reach out to the Palestinians by letting Arafat be buried in Jerusalem” dribble. No doubt when Israel refuses the UN will pass a resolution condeming Israel. If I was Sharon I would tell the NYT that he will let Arafat be buried in Jerusalem the day that NYC lets OBL be buried at the 9-11 bomb site.
Nov 6, 2004 - 10:23 am 16. PeterUK:Arafat should be allowed to go out with a bang,put Semtex in his coffin and trigger it during the valedictory speeches.That way his followers can all share him.I’m sure that is the way he would have wanted to go.
Nov 6, 2004 - 11:30 am 17. jedrury:Kevin P:
That was the position of the Israelis but
the quote was actually having OBL “buried at Arlington National Cemetery.” There is nothing like directness in foreign affairs.
Nov 6, 2004 - 1:01 pm