Arafat Dies

[Colleen Thomas]

PARIS - Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), who triumphantly forced his people's plight into the world spotlight but failed to achieve his lifelong quest for Palestinian statehood, died Thursday at age 75.


He was to the end a man of many mysteries and paradoxes — terrorist, statesman, autocrat and peacemaker.


Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat confirmed to The Associated Press that Arafat had died. The Palestinian leader spent his final days in a coma at a French military hospital outside Paris.


Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Arafat aide, confirmed that Arafat died at 4:30 am Paris time. He spoke to reporters at Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.


Arafat's last days were as murky and dramatic as his life. Flown to France on Oct. 29 after nearly three years of being penned in his West Bank headquarters by Israeli tanks, he initially improved but then sharply deteriorated as rumors swirled about his illness.


Top Palestinian officials flew in to check on their leader while Arafat's 41-year-old wife, Suha, publicly accused them of trying to usurp his powers. Ordinary Palestinians prayed for his well being, but expressed deep frustration over his failure to improve their lives.


Arafat's failure to groom a successor complicated his passing, raising the danger of factional conflict among Palestinians.


A visual constant in his checkered keffiyeh headdress, Arafat kept the Palestinians' cause at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But he fell short of creating a Palestinian state, and, along with other secular Arab leaders of his generation, he saw his influence weakened by the rise of radical Islam in recent years.


Revered by his own people, Arafat was reviled by others. He was accused of secretly fomenting attacks on Israelis while proclaiming brotherhood and claiming to have put terrorism aside. Many Israelis felt the paunchy 5-foot, 2-inch (1.57 meters) Palestinian's real goal remained the destruction of the Jewish state.


Arafat became one of the world's most familiar faces after addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 1974, when he entered the chamber wearing a holster and carrying a sprig. "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun," he said. "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."


Two decades later, he shook hand at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites) on a peace deal that formally recognized Israel's right to exist while granting the Palestinians limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites). The pact led to the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for Arafat, Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.


But the accord quickly unraveled amid mutual suspicions and accusations of treaty violations, and a new round of violence that erupted in the fall of 2000 has killed some 4,000 people, three-quarters of them Palestinian.


The Israeli and U.S. governments said Arafat deserved much of the blame for the derailing of the peace process. Even many of his own people began whispering against Arafat, expressing disgruntlement over corruption, lawlessness and a bad economy in the Palestinian areas.


A resilient survivor of war with Israel, assassination attempts and even a plane crash, Arafat was born Rahman Abdel-Raouf Arafat Al-Qudwa on Aug. 4, 1929, the fifth of seven children of a Palestinian merchant killed in the 1948 war over Israel's creation. There is disagreement whether he was born in Gaza or in Cairo, Egypt.


Educated as an engineer in Egypt, Arafat served in the Egyptian army and then started a contracting firm in Kuwait. It was there that he founded the Fatah (news - web sites) movement, which became the core of the Palestine Liberation Organization (news - web sites).


After the Arabs' humbling defeat by Israel in the six-day war of 1967, the PLO thrust itself on the world's front pages by sending its gunmen out to hijack airplanes, machine gun airports and seize Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics (news - web sites).


"As long as the world saw Palestinians as no more than refugees standing in line for U.N. rations, it was not likely to respect them. Now that the Palestinians carry rifles the situation has changed," Arafat explained.

 

[minsue]

Shit.

Nothing good will come of this.

 

[R. Richard]

"Top Palestinian officials flew in to check on their leader while Arafat's 41-year-old wife, Suha, publicly accused them of trying to usurp his powers. Ordinary Palestinians prayed for his well being, but expressed deep frustration over his failure to improve their lives."

One of the reasons for Arafat's lingering he's alive/he's dead situation is Suha Arafat. Suha would not allow access to Yasser until the Palestinian Authority guaranteed her a widow's pension. A widow's pension in the amount of $22 million per year. (You read correctly, $22 million per year.) If Suha budgets carefully she should be able to scrape past on the pension while the typical Palestinian exists on less than $900 per year, mostly from charity.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

From the MSN home page: Yasser Arafat Dead At 75, Palestinian leader's health had declined.

No kidding people, death is an obvious decline in health.

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

i am extremely embarassed to admit i don't understand the entire conflict. once upon a time, someone tried to explain it to me but i truly still dont remember what was told to me...
i want to understand, can any one come up with a short synopsis?

vella, struggling with ignorance.

 

[scheherazade_79]

My Predictions

1. Unrest in Palestine, leading to more suicide bombings in Israel.
2. A heavy-handed Israeli response - let's not forget that they live by the doctrine of an eye for an eye...
3. The intervention of another Arab country, possibly Syria.
4. US intervention.
5. Another war in the Middle East.

I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

i am extremely embarassed to admit i don't understand the entire conflict. once upon a time, someone tried to explain it to me but i truly still dont remember what was told to me...
i want to understand, can any one come up with a short synopsis?

vella, struggling with ignorance.

Eeep.

There is no short synopsis that can really give you perspective.

Basically. At the end or WWII, palestine and the country that is now Israel were controlled by the British as part of the mandate they recieved Att he end of World War I. The Jews demanded a homeland and the US demanded it too. The brits were taking heat from both sides, so they decided to get out. About 1/4 ot the territory went to the Jews, the rest to Palestinians.

Palestine and all her Arab neighbors attacked the Jewsih state and, pretty much got their noses whacked with the rolled up news paper. they tried a couple more times, and each time got blasted. In 67 I believe they tried again and this time Israel we postal, taking over areas that they felt were bing used as jumping off points From Syria, the Golan heights, from Jordan the west bank and from Egypt, the Sania. They also occupied all of the land of the palestinain mandate, basically makeing the palestinians an occupied people.

This has held for a very long time. In the late seventies (?), the PLO under Yassir Arafat began waging a terrorist war with Israel, hijacking planes, machinegunning airports and most notably, killing the Israeli atheletes at the olympics.

The conflict stands now with Israel still occupying Palestine. The Palestinians wage a terror war against Israel, with bombings and shootings. The israeli's hit back with rocket attacks and reprisals. the hate and distrust is so deeply ingrained now that neither side believes the other is capable of working for peace. The U.S. and Israel, refused to Deal with Arafat because he was a terrorist. the Palestinian people overwhelmingly supported him as their leader.

Now that he has passed, there might be a better prostpect for peace as the U.S. might work with a moderate and pressure Israel to. It's just as likely there will be factional civil war as he left no clear successor. Exactly how it play sout is anyone's guess.

A quick and dirty guide.

-Colly

 

[Colleen Thomas]

My Predictions

1. Unrest in Palestine, leading to more suicide bombings in Israel.
2. A heavy-handed Israeli response - let's not forget that they live by the doctrine of an eye for an eye...
3. The intervention of another Arab country, possibly Syria.
4. US intervention.
5. Another war in the Middle East.

I hope I'm wrong.

Unlikely. No Arab power has ever had much success against Israel. Bush has shown he will back Sharon to the hilt. Syria is without a sponsor after the fall of the USSR. And we have already indicated we think they possibly allowed WMD's and Iraqi wanted to cross their borders. I seriously doubt they will risk provoking the GWB light show in Damascus for the sake of the Paelestinians. Even without fear of U.S. intervention, the Israeli's would wipe the floor with them and their best chance of getting out with anything approaching dignity would be U.N. intervention, where we, the U.S. hold a veto on the security Council.

-Colly

 

[Guest]

thanks colly. thats about what was explained to me... though most likely a bit less slanted. im going to read up on this as now i can see it a bit clearer.
*HUSG*
and a grin
v~

 

[Colleen Thomas]

thanks colly. thats about what was explained to me... though most likely a bit less slanted. im going to read up on this as now i can see it a bit clearer.
*HUSG*
and a grin
v~

LOL<

that was about as unslanted as I can do. Oh well, there are some things I have trouble being objective about. The great Oggs can probably give you a much better overall, he has enlightened me on a good number of things reguarding the conflict.

*HUGS*

 

[scheherazade_79]

thanks colly. thats about what was explained to me... though most likely a bit less slanted. im going to read up on this as now i can see it a bit clearer.
*HUSG*
and a grin
v~

Be careful where you get your info, Vella. There are a lot of shocking fibs floating around out there. Last time I was staying with my girl in Florida, we had no fewer than three leaflets shoved through the letterbox about the situation. They were so far removed from the truth, that I began to wonder for a little while if Goebbels were still alive and working for the Jewish community in the US.
Rule of thumb - anything that portrays the Israelis in a positive light as far as the Middle East crisis is concerned, is misinformation.

 

[Guest]

 

[Colleen Thomas]

And in the wars that were conducted, the Arabs were willing to fight to the last Egyptian. Hence the Camp David accord.

To be fair a lot of that had to do with Nassar and the goal of Pan-arabism.

-Colly

 

[Guest]

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Be careful where you get your info, Vella. There are a lot of shocking fibs floating around out there. Last time I was staying with my girl in Florida, we had no fewer than three leaflets shoved through the letterbox about the situation. They were so far removed from the truth, that I began to wonder for a little while if Goebbels were still alive and working for the Jewish community in the US.
Rule of thumb - anything that portrays the Israelis in a positive light as far as the Middle East crisis is concerned, is misinformation.

The more prudent statement would be that anything that portrays either side in a positive light is likely to come from a partisan source.

Your best bet Vella is to read articles from several sources. In general U.S. news reports are biased towards the Israelis while European reports will be biased against them. Arab reports will almost uniformly favor the Palestinains of course. It's probably a sign of just how divisive the issue is that I cannot off the top of my head even reccomend a source that is objective.

If you try several sources on any particular incident, you will find Arab/european sources tend to report things and leave out mitigating factors while U.S. sources do the same.

For example, a headline may scream 13 year old Palestinain girl killed.

The Arabs will say she was viciously gunned down by the IDF.

Europoean papers might note she was killed in a crossfire between the Idf and militants.

U.S. papers will probably decry the fact that the militants in question were shooting from a school yard, using the children as shields.

While Israeli papers might say she was killed by the militants.

That' why my eep at your first query. You could spend a couple of years studyuing it and still not be in possession of all the pertinent facts and everything you read is colored by opinion. Your best bet is to read each article with a healthy skepticism. in the end I think you will find there are no good guys and more than enough bad guys to make you despair.

-Colly

 

[Honey123]

Again!!! --- Did he die like last week?

 

[Colleen Thomas]

True Colly. The major problem with Pan-arabism was the usual "Who's gonna be in charge?" Nassar? Qadaffi? The Sauds?

Reminds of the line and scene from 'Lawrence of Arabia' (I just can't remember who said it, Alec Guiness or Anthony Quinn), "What is an Arab?"

Nassar was the man. From the time he took the Suez he was the poster child of the movement. The Israelis were both a boon and a curse to him. A boon because you could unite almost all Abars against them, a curse because the regularly smacked his troops around and made him look inept.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Again!!! --- Did he die like last week?

He was hospitalized last week. No one seems sure how long he has been brain dead, but he was interbated and still surviving in body at least until last night.

 

[Lisa Denton]

thanks colly. thats about what was explained to me... though most likely a bit less slanted. im going to read up on this as now i can see it a bit clearer.
*HUSG*
and a grin
v~

vella sweetie, eat this ....................................... data.

Add to Colly's excellent, and per requested, short synopsis.
You can kick around and debate everything but here is some facts to add.

Israel, with U.S. military hardware, has an air force which cannot be fucked with, they rule the airspace. That coupled with the threat of U.S. military intervention has prevented all out war.

Arafat held some power over many groups wanting full scale extermination of all Israeli's. No one knows now who or what groups will replace him, or if they will have any power over the many factions.

MAJOR NEWS FLASH PEOPLES -- U.S. intervention is not even a vague possibility at this point in time.

U.N. intervention will be swift and harsh, they will impose sanctions and issue sharp reprimands as full scale war rages.

Thats the facts, the rest is my opinion.

Israel will survive, at all costs. Fuck your debates, they have the right to live.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Israel, with U.S. military hardware, has an air force which cannot be fucked with, they rule the airspace. That coupled with the threat of U.S. military intervention has prevented all out war.

Another fact is that despite the always-present US veto, there is no nation on earth in violation of more UN resolutions than Israel.

Everyone has the right to live.

 

[TheEarl]

Eeep.

There is no short synopsis that can really give you perspective.

Basically. At the end or WWII, palestine and the country that is now Israel were controlled by the British as part of the mandate they recieved Att he end of World War I. The Jews demanded a homeland and the US demanded it too. The brits were taking heat from both sides, so they decided to get out. About 1/4 ot the territory went to the Jews, the rest to Palestinians.

Palestine and all her Arab neighbors attacked the Jewsih state and, pretty much got their noses whacked with the rolled up news paper. they tried a couple more times, and each time got blasted. In 67 I believe they tried again and this time Israel we postal, taking over areas that they felt were bing used as jumping off points From Syria, the Golan heights, from Jordan the west bank and from Egypt, the Sania. They also occupied all of the land of the palestinain mandate, basically makeing the palestinians an occupied people.

This has held for a very long time. In the late seventies (?), the PLO under Yassir Arafat began waging a terrorist war with Israel, hijacking planes, machinegunning airports and most notably, killing the Israeli atheletes at the olympics.

The conflict stands now with Israel still occupying Palestine. The Palestinians wage a terror war against Israel, with bombings and shootings. The israeli's hit back with rocket attacks and reprisals. the hate and distrust is so deeply ingrained now that neither side believes the other is capable of working for peace. The U.S. and Israel, refused to Deal with Arafat because he was a terrorist. the Palestinian people overwhelmingly supported him as their leader.

Now that he has passed, there might be a better prostpect for peace as the U.S. might work with a moderate and pressure Israel to. It's just as likely there will be factional civil war as he left no clear successor. Exactly how it play sout is anyone's guess.

A quick and dirty guide.

-Colly

I'll see that eeep and raise you an urrgh! This is my two pence, however biased it may be.

To be honest, this is mostly Britain's fault. During WW1, the area was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Germany against the Allies. Lawrence of Arabia came in and persuaded the Arabs that we would give them freedom if they'd start fighting on our side and they did. The Ottoman Empire folded like a deck of cards and the spoils of the Middle East were open to all comers.

Did we honour our promise? Did we buggery. The Middle East was partitioned into mandates for Britain and France - ostensibly to protect and guide the M.Eastern countries, but really a colony in all but name. When they realised this, the Arabic people were not happy bunnies and resisted briefly, although sheer weight of troop numbers prevented any major uprisings. This is why Britain isn't liked in Iraq (And also why the Black Watch are taking great care to describe themselves as Scottish and to fly the Scottish Saltire rather than the Union Flag) and why France are staying out of the entire area.

After WW2, the USA started taking an interest in the area and the first major spat occured - the Suez crisis. Basically the Suez canal was controlled jointly by France and Britain and was a vital pipeline to the Mediterranian. Prince Nassar of Egypt stepped in and nationalised it, effectively stealing millions of pounds from both countries and damaging our trade routes. It was the diplomatic equivalent of flicking us the bird and asking us what we were going to do about it. France and Britain rallyed the troops and stormed Egypt.

When we were two hours away from Cairo and victory, the USSR made motions towards the USA about 'peacekeeping' as Nassar was USSR-supported. The USA asked us to stop the invasion and we told them where to stick it, ocnsidering ourselves fully justified in responding to the diplomatic and economic insult. So the USA imposed draconion economic sanctions, collapsing both the franc and the pound and sending our economies into freefall until we pulled out. This established the USA as being willing to involve herslef in the Middle East and also established them as willign to screw aound with anyone to get their way. This is one of many reasosn why the French and British don't like the USA.

Under pressure fromn the Jewish vote, the USA decided to create the state of Israel by partitioning Palestine. Palestine was understandably quite upset about this (considering that they'd held the land in question for some time). Israel may have a historical connectionto that land, but it wasn't theirs anymore and hadn't been for some time. Britain had been humiliated over the Suez canal and was aware that the USA was willing to use their war debt to control their foreign policy. We were just happy to leave.

The Palestinians called upon their allies, Syria, Egypt and Jordan to help them reclaim the land that the 'Imperialist Americans' had removed from them. This is why Palestinians don't like America.

The USA had seen this coming and had armed the Israeli army as if they were the US Army B side. Three wars, three victories for Israel and the Israelis decided enough was enough and annexed Palestine.

Now the situation gets complicated. The Palestinians are valid in saying that they were booted off their land illegally by Israelis and the Israel has no right existing in Palestinian soil. However, Israel has now existed for so long that people have been born there who have never lived anywhere else. The land is theirs and has been theirs for as long as they've lived and they don't have another place to go to. They are Israelis, not Jewish immigrants.

The Palestinians blow up Israelis claiming that they are usurpers. The Israelis retaliate against Palestinian settlements, claiming that they only exist at Israeli sufferance and there is and shouldn't be a Palestinian state on 'Israeli' soil. Both sides incur more and more retaliation from the other. To make things even more spicy, the entire area of the Middle East was promised to the Jews by the Old Testament, which means the God-botherers (by which I mean fundamentalist Christians) in the USA think that God is telling them to expel the Arab people from the entire area.

Arafat was a terrorist, granted, but he was also a canny politician and statesman, willing to use whatever means necessary to aid his people. He united them, presenting an international face and a consistent front. Without him I fear for Palestine. If Israel crushes the remains of Palestine, then the entire area will erupt. Every Arab nation will invade - not only for defense of Palestine, but for fear that they'll be the next to be picked off.

I will leave you with this very chilling thought: Israel is a nuclear power. In some places in the former USSR, it is easier to get a nuclear warhead than it is to get a Western car and Arabic terrorist groups have both the funds and means to arm themselves this way.

God help us.

The Earl

 

[R. Richard]

Again!!! --- Did he die like last week?

Honey123:
I am linked into a site run by the Israeli Mossad (in a glaxy long ago and far away, I used to do business with them). They reported several days ago the Arafat was dead and kept in a semblence of life only via machines.

The reson for the sham was that Suha, his wife, was determined to keep the $22 million dollar pension on which she lives. She denied access to Arafat until she got what she wanted.

Some idea of the Palestinian problem may be seen in the fact that Arafat never named a successor. Arafat was afraid that a successor might not wait for Arafat to die a natural death. Thus, Arafat's death will almost certainly lead to a civil war among the Palestinians.

JMHO.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Excellent post, TheE.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I'll see that eeep and raise you an urrgh! This is my two pence, however biased it may be.

To be honest, this is mostly Britain's fault. During WW1, the area was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Germany against the Allies. Lawrence of Arabia came in and persuaded the Arabs that we would give them freedom if they'd start fighting on our side and they did. The Ottoman Empire folded like a deck of cards and the spoils of the Middle East were open to all comers.

Did we honour our promise? Did we buggery. The Middle East was partitioned into mandates for Britain and France - ostensibly to protect and guide the M.Eastern countries, but really a colony in all but name. When they realised this, the Arabic people were not happy bunnies and resisted briefly, although sheer weight of troop numbers prevented any major uprisings. This is why Britain isn't liked in Iraq (And also why the Black Watch are taking great care to describe themselves as Scottish and to fly the Scottish Saltire rather than the Union Flag) and why France are staying out of the entire area.

After WW2, the USA started taking an interest in the area and the first major spat occured - the Suez crisis. Basically the Suez canal was controlled jointly by France and Britain and was a vital pipeline to the Mediterranian. Prince Nassar of Egypt stepped in and nationalised it, effectively stealing millions of pounds from both countries and damaging our trade routes. It was the diplomatic equivalent of flicking us the bird and asking us what we were going to do about it. France and Britain rallyed the troops and stormed Egypt.

When we were two hours away from Cairo and victory, the USSR made motions towards the USA about 'peacekeeping' as Nassar was USSR-supported. The USA asked us to stop the invasion and we told them where to stick it, ocnsidering ourselves fully justified in responding to the diplomatic and economic insult. So the USA imposed draconion economic sanctions, collapsing both the franc and the pound and sending our economies into freefall until we pulled out. This established the USA as being willing to involve herslef in the Middle East and also established them as willign to screw aound with anyone to get their way. This is one of many reasosn why the French and British don't like the USA.

Under pressure fromn the Jewish vote, the USA decided to create the state of Israel by partitioning Palestine. Palestine was understandably quite upset about this (considering that they'd held the land in question for some time). Israel may have a historical connectionto that land, but it wasn't theirs anymore and hadn't been for some time. Britain had been humiliated over the Suez canal and was aware that the USA was willing to use their war debt to control their foreign policy. We were just happy to leave.

The Palestinians called upon their allies, Syria, Egypt and Jordan to help them reclaim the land that the 'Imperialist Americans' had removed from them. This is why Palestinians don't like America.

The USA had seen this coming and had armed the Israeli army as if they were the US Army B side. Three wars, three victories for Israel and the Israelis decided enough was enough and annexed Palestine.

Now the situation gets complicated. The Palestinians are valid in saying that they were booted off their land illegally by Israelis and the Israel has no right existing in Palestinian soil. However, Israel has now existed for so long that people have been born there who have never lived anywhere else. The land is theirs and has been theirs for as long as they've lived and they don't have another place to go to. They are Israelis, not Jewish immigrants.

The Palestinians blow up Israelis claiming that they are usurpers. The Israelis retaliate against Palestinian settlements, claiming that they only exist at Israeli sufferance and there is and shouldn't be a Palestinian state on 'Israeli' soil. Both sides incur more and more retaliation from the other. To make things even more spicy, the entire area of the Middle East was promised to the Jews by the Old Testament, which means the God-botherers (by which I mean fundamentalist Christians) in the USA think that God is telling them to expel the Arab people from the entire area.

Arafat was a terrorist, granted, but he was also a canny politician and statesman, willing to use whatever means necessary to aid his people. He united them, presenting an international face and a consistent front. Without him I fear for Palestine. If Israel crushes the remains of Palestine, then the entire area will erupt. Every Arab nation will invade - not only for defense of Palestine, but for fear that they'll be the next to be picked off.

I will leave you with this very chilling thought: Israel is a nuclear power. In some places in the former USSR, it is easier to get a nuclear warhead than it is to get a Western car and Arabic terrorist groups have both the funds and means to arm themselves this way.

God help us.

The Earl

I disagree on the Arab invasion part. They have pretty much accepted they can't fight the IDF. A more likely scenario would be an all out oil embargo, until they got guarenttes from the Us and other major powers that they were protected.

I suspect Israel will continue building the security fence and unilaterally pulling out of most of palestine. They face a threat from Arabs that is greater than nuclear weapons. The Arabs are breeding at several times the rate of the jewish population. If they hold on too long, they might well find themselves a minority in their own jewish state.

I think their prime concern is security. If the fence is as sucessful at keeping lunatic bombers out as it has been portryaed to be so far, I think Israel will settle in borders they like and leave the rest of palestine to the palestinians.

They have the muscle and backing to hold what they claim as borders behind the fence. The Palestinians will most likely be fighting a nasty civil war and will be in no position to offer effective resistance. Considering they have a GWB blank check for the next four years and can't afford to gamble on the next election giving them such support, I suspect they will act quickly here to get the fence built, get behind it and be done with the occupation of Palestine.

Just my guesses of course.

-Colly