Digging Up Arafat
Suddenly, I received all of these phone calls from journalists asking me to talk about who murdered the late Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. The news peg is that he’s being dug up to see if someone poisoned him. Guess who?
I tell them that in a sense Arafat was murdered. Excited, they ask who did it. And I respond: Fatah, the PLO, and the Palestinian Authority, all organizations that Arafat headed. I don’t mean literally that they set out to kill Arafat, but they were the ones really responsible for his death. Let me elucidate.
For many months before he was rushed to Paris for medical attention, everyone who followed him closely knew Arafat was sick. It was the subject of extensive discussion among Israelis and Palestinians. Anyone who saw him give a speech, whether live or on television, could see he was in bad shape. My mother-in-law, a doctor, saw him in one broadcast and easily rattled off a list of symptoms.
I was told the following story — in far more detail — not long after by a very reliable person who witnessed the conversation. One of Arafat’s Palestinian doctors and a leading Israeli physician were chatting at a conference. An Israeli reporter noted for his left-wing ideology and remarkably inaccurate story came up to the Palestinian and asked if Arafat was ill. “Definitely not,” he told the reporter who, well-pleased, rushed off to write up his scoop. The Israeli turned to the Palestinian and said, “But ____, you know he’s very ill.” The Palestinian medico responded, “Of course!”
Yet despite this fact, Arafat did not receive serious or competent treatment. It was no secret that the individuals who served as his medical staff were not very good doctors but chosen for political reasons. The biggest problem, however, was that the Palestinian leadership could not face the crisis honestly.
Remember, Arafat was their leader for as long as they could remember. He was well-known for making every decision, even the most minor, for the movement and for the institutions then governing the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians in the know frequently pointed out that when Arafat was traveling, literally nothing could get done.
So how could they face or admit the potential demise of the man on whom their fortunes and indeed the entire movement seemed to rest? Dictatorial movements or countries are like that. The courtiers all live in fear that the fearless leader will be no more. What will become of them?
And so if they had taken better care of Arafat, he would have lasted longer. Of course, Arafat was never known for being solicitous of help. He was overweight, ate unhealthy food , and didn’t exercise. The mere thought of Arafat trying to jog makes the last point effectively. He had been severely injured in a plane crash several years earlier.
Arafat himself refused to rest or to leave his headquarters despite its being under siege by Israel after all the terrorism he had ordered during his post-Camp David summit war against the peace process. It was not hard to see that this 75-year-old man was a mortality waiting to happen.
Just as Arafat’s cronies and lieutenants could not face his sickness, a good portion of the Western media and intelligentsia refuses to face their own sickness. Only against the Jews would the modern-day version of ritual murder become credible, especially when it is based on a ridiculously obvious fabrication.
The current Arafat-was-murdered meme began when very large amounts of radioactive material were “discovered” on his clothing. This substance is scientifically known to break down on a very regular schedule. For such a quantity to be found would have meant there would have been a gigantic amount — was he hosed down with radioactive poison? — when he died eight years ago. In other words, the stuff had been planted only hours at most before it was found, no doubt by the same people who put it there. In short, the accusation makes no sense, but it is being treated seriously. The accusation is made by anti-Israel propagandists who spew out the most vicious antisemitic hatred and lies yet are given a large measure of credibility. Such is the way Israel is dealt with on many things by otherwise respectable people in the West nowadays.
In the case of any other alleged perpetrator, the kind of claim being made against Israel in this case would have been ridiculed. Yet part of the world seems to believe that the Jews are capable of anything.
It is a good thing that the Arabs prefer to devote their efforts on uncovering conspiracies rather than face their real problems and actually fix them. This preocupation with conspiracies only results in their faling further behind everyone else.
Aside from that, Arafat’s death was unfortunate for Israel. Hamas waited until after he died to make it’s power play. Sharon would not have surrendered Gaza had Arafat lived.
Mike,
“It is a good thing that the [fill in the blank] prefer to devote their efforts on uncovering conspiracies rather than face their real problems and actually fix them. This preocupation…only results in their faling further behind everyone else.
My my, how the Arabs and a particular “urban” group here in America have so very much in common…
Amazing the cycle of despair and violence you will descend in to, and stay in, when your “leaders” are nothing but corrupt thugs in suits, selling a perpetual (false) grievance narrative, to keep THEM coiffed and in fine threads, at YOUR expense.
Dishonesty, hypocrisy, corruption, lust, greed, violence…call it “islam” or call it “ghetto”, the result is still the same thing.
Yasser Arafat invented the Fakestinian people.
Anti-Israelism is indistinguishable from antisemitism. Just about every intelligent person has figured that out by now.
And BOTH are intellectually slim cover for “anti-westernism”
Barry,
So you disagree with Efraim Karsh regarding Arafat was a homosexual?
Arabs do not consider homosexual acts to be “homosexual”…its just a little tension release with young boys, thats all.
Rather like the way premeditated murder of children, with knives, is not in any way a “crime” in their book, so long as a rationale can be made plausable to their corrupted mindset.
Lies. Then Lies ABOUT the lies.
These are Muslims we’re talking about.
Would it benefit Israel to negotiate with “the Arab nation” instead of Hamas or the Palestinian Arabs? After all, more than half of Israel’s Jews were driven out of the Arab Nation, Arab countries all of which have substantial debts to pay those Jews for the expropriation of Jewish assets 1947-67. Why waste time now when ultimately all eleven Arab nations engaged in the expulsion and expropriation will be called upon to negotiate with Israel? Israel’s Ron Prosor has told the UN that all these Jewish claims must be negotiated before final agreement with the Palestinian Arabs is possible.
Enough time has already been wasted in fruitless discussions!
Hamas did it.
@Mr. Rubin
“I’ve looked into the Arafat-as-active-homosexual and AIDS stories for many years as well as interviewed key intelligence people in several countries. I have never heard any evidence —”
Really? There is a contributor Here named Ion Pacepa who touched on this once. Maybe you should ask him?
In Ion Pacepa’s book, “Red Horizons”, the former Romanian intelligence chief described the situation in which Arafat regularly had (sexual) relations with the (male) members of his bodyguards. Pacepa noted that videos were secretly taken of these “scenes” in case the Romanian government needed to convince Arafat to view particular situations in an alternative way (put pressure on him). Whether or not he had AIDS is another matter but it does appear that he was a homosexual, a rampant one at that so, at least, he would have been further at risk.
I did not know of and have not seen Mr Pacepa’s book, but I just might be in a position to support his account of Arafat’s homosexual indiscretions being filmed in Rumania. Late in 1989, I was working for the Spanish state news agency EFE, which at that time was doing a pretty credible job of covering the ongoing card-house collapse of the Soviet client states. Much of the input came from local stringers who filed in English. The material was passed on to me, or other native English speaking newsroom staff, to decode their often defective English and prepare a Spanish first draft. The Bucharest guy was very, very good, and I distinctly remember thinking he seemed to have high-level contacts with the people who arranged for the overthrow and execution of the Ceausescus.
Shortly after Christmas and no more than two or three days after the former first couple were shot, a story came in that a representative of Israel was already in town prepared to pay top dollar for the films Ceausescu apparently ordered made of Arafat cavorting with his bodyguards during his visits to Romania. I am certain bodyguards were mentioned as his playmates of preference and thinking “well, if you’re into rough trade, nothing beats having a private goon squad that travels around the world with you.” But there was no follow-up to clarify whether the Israeli offer found any takers.
In any case, the story was spiked by EFE’s senior editors, the only right thing to do without independent confirmation of Arafat’s proclivities. Their public revelation would anyway have eclipsed any hanky panky out of Bucharest. No backup, no story. But I’ve sometimes wondered when the Israelis might decide to play the ace they’ve presumably been holding on to for so many years
You’re absolutely right, Buckeye — anybody who can read Pacepa’s invaluable book and still be in any doubt as to the cause of Arafat’s eventual demise deserves a lifetime membership of the Blind Deluded Idiot Apologists for Yasir Arafat Club.
I tried to care but I failed.
The only reason to find out who killed Arafat is to determine how many medals to order and who to give them to.
Thanks for this article, Barry. It’s the part where you describe how Israel is so regularly blamed for its faults, deliberate or not, whereas the same in other nations is so readily passed over. The feel for anti-semitism, the long hatred of Jews, becomes all the more compellingly and sadly emphasized and believable in your descriptions.
The shame isn’t that Arafat might have been murdered, but that he wasn’t killed by the Israelis when they had the chance in the 1980′s when he was in Lebanon. Arafat was hiding in a densely populated civilian area at the time and the Israelis didn’t want to level the place because of how the civil casualties would be played in the media against them. So, the US sent “peacekeepers” and helped Arafat walk away. Think of all the lives that could have been saved and all the misery spared had the Israelis gotten him then. Indeed there might even have been peace because it was very nearly a reality at one point, until Arafat came back to Gaza from Libya and the pro-peace Palestinian leadership just happened to vanish, followed by a rash of suicide bombings over months of time in Israel. The peace process died and Arafat and his gang looted Gaza and things are as they are now.
I also think back to the Israeli operation in Ramallah in 2002, after the seder massacre in Netanya. The IDF was systematically demolishing the government compound around the central Muqata where Arafat and many terrorists were hiding. Even as George Bush was urging Israel not to harm Arafat, I couldn’t help but think how much good an “errant” artillery shell could have done. (“Oops!”) Maybe Israel’s enemies, after getting over the shock, would think the Israelis had dropped a policy of restraint and meant business. Today, certainly after the Gaza “ceasefire”, they see an Israel that has shackled herself and is not prepared to crush her enemies.
Agreed. It may have something to do with that modern nonsense of not targeting enemy leadership so one’s own leadership doesn’t become targets as well. Politicians have thus insulated themselves from the wars they start while poor and middle class kids go off to die, though some, like Kerry, put in a little service and exploit it for political gain.
So it is possible that Arafat was protected so that his followers or other terrorists wouldn’t come gunning for the Western politicians who allowed his killing. However, killing the terror leaders in a timely manner and making them direct targets would go a long way toward calming them down. For that matter it might also make other politicians much less inclined to get involved in war on a whim if they had to worry about their own security.
Not only SHOULD they have killed Arafat…
But I for one would like to see a cluster-bomb sortie at every gathering of Terroist Supporters that show up in massive groups at every Terrorists Funeral in Gaza.
The Muslims love to blow up weddings and funerals dont they?
So if we skip weddings out of a “moral kindness” that they completely lack themselves, by my math we’re still better than them by 50%.
Who killed Arafat?
My question is, how come his GRAVESITE isnt being bombed, every hour, on the hour.
Maybe they think he will rise up and tell them where he hid the rest of the money.
A fair-minded observer might start thinking… Jews being put into a special category with negative implications in today’s world.
Jews overwhelming support an ideology based on placing people in groups (by race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, occupation, country of origin, and every possible subset), so they have zero standing when they complain that they’re targeted as a group. The playing of one group against another is, after all, the intent of the groupings. Live by the group, die by the group (literally in this case). Jews would be much better served to abandon the hideous ideology of the left and embrace the individual. Until then, reap, sow and all that.
The same, of course, holds true for Blacks, Hispanics, Gays, Feminists, Environmentalists, Union Members and every other group who, if they had a single functioning brain cell, could look to the Jews and see their future. But leftism is about emotion, hatred and envy in particular, so brain cells are not involved. You want to quit being targeted as a group… then leave the group think. If you support politicians who intend to destroy you then you really shouldn’t expect your political opponents, who you oppose at every turn, to ride in to save you. You got the political system you wanted, enjoy…
I will add that Israel was originally going to be a socialist state, closely allied with the Soviets. Israel saw the folly, opted for capitalism, and Israel has been a target of the left ever since. The same left that Jews, again, overwhelmingly support.
“Jews overwhelming support an ideology based on placing people in groups ”
The fact is while most leftists are Jews, most Jews are not leftists.
“Israel saw the folly, opted for capitalism, and Israel has been a target of the left ever since.” Hell hath no fury like an ideology scorned.
Re. “most Jews are not leftists.”
I do not know about “most” Jews, but here in the US more than 70% voted for Obama in the last election. If this is not the “leftism”, please define one for me.
You know if there is one group I can’t stand it is people who catagorize people into groups and then talk about how they don’t like them…and the Dutch.
Amen,Amen, and Amen.
That is both empirically false and illogical.
Jews do NOT ascribe to the ‘leftist’ agenda. Only AMERICAN Jews do that, & they technically aren’t Jews,not by Jewish laws. They have a very open, tolerant society, which is why homosexuals from Iran have fled there by the dozens. They know they can live without the threat of being beheaded. Israel still is, & always will be, God’s Chosen nation. They may suffer in the future, some horrible things will happen, according to Scripture. But, they will NEVER be wiped out, nor will Israel ever belong to the Arabs, Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc.
Great Report ChrisS! I’ve known how the left thinks, but it was interesting how the Jews probably did pick Capitolism over Marxism, Karl Marx being a Jew and everything. However, I guess that their anglo-saxon brothers make better partners then other countries, such as Russia, China, etc., etc.,etc. Thanks for the info. Just saying…
11 ChrisS, Good points. The suicidal nature of the Liberal Jew is frustrating.
If Arafat was indeed executed ten thousand blessings on whoever took the pig out.
The important part of this whole story is that the evil, inhuman, bloodthirsty monster named Arafat is dead. Good riddance and who cares how he died as long as it was painful.
…my question is why didn’t the Israeli’s kill him? this Egyptian did more harm to Israel and the Arabs and western countries then anyone else at the time.
there should have been a line blocks long of arabs who wanted to kill him.
The Israelis did not want to kill him because they knew whoever succeeded him would be far worse. (that is what several IDF soldiers told me)
Then just kill that prick too…
And then, everyone who shows up at his funeral.
Rinse (with napalm) and repeat.
All this pussy-footing around gets us where, exactly?
“The Middle East is, of course, the place where conspiracy theories abound.”
Three of the most famous and enduring conspiracy theories to come out of the Middle East are Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Is there any way in this world to deal with a people so consumed by hatred that common sense is totally lost? This hatred is really a disease that is destroying those consumed by it. When I heard they were going exhume Arafat the first thing that came to mind was if it’s not Israel’s fault this despot is dead, then it must be G W Bush’s fault. The truth is not acceptable in this group of hate driven terrorist.
Question: “Is there any way in this world to deal with a people so consumed by hatred that common sense is totally lost?”
Answer: Yes.
See; Pilot, Kamikaze
See also; Truman, Harry
Ref. Project, Manhattan
Def. Surrender, unconditional
If that doesn’t suffice, there’s always THIS.
Mr Rubin appears to be ignorant at best and at least disingenuous.
“The current Arafat-was-murdered meme began when very large amounts of radioactive material were “discovered” on his clothing. This substance is scientifically known to break down on a very regular schedule. For such a quantity to be found would have meant there would have been a gigantic amount — was he hosed down with radioactive poison? — when he died eight years ago. In other words, the stuff had been planted only hours at most before it was found, no doubt by the same people who put it there.”
The radiocative substance is Polonium, which has a a half-life of 138 days. If it was used 8 years ago, there would still be detectable amounts of it. There would also be detectable amounts of Lead-210 which has a half-life of 22 years.
It would not be necessary to deposit the polonium “hours” before finding it, and in fact any competent lab would be able to quickly tell the difference between Polonium that is 8 years old and that which is freshly deposited.
I think you have misunderstood the paragraph you are quoting.
No, I understand the paragraph very well.
But not so much the physics or toxicology i am afraid.
The lab published the activity levels found on the clothing. You can back calculate the original dose based on the half life to when he died. His dose would have been massive. The symptoms would be unmistakeable, near instant, catastrophic, and nothing like what happened to Arafat.
The scientists at the lab who tested the clothing said publicly that his symptoms did not match Po poisening.
The toothbrush had 54mBq and the clothing 180mBq. Check your post again after you do the math. You should have done that before calling Prof. Rubin ignorant right? The lethal dose of 210 Po is 4.5 Sv and the dose equivalent if ingested is 0.51 microSv/Bq if that helps.
Thank you Spindok. It never fails to amaze me the variety of types attracted by PJ Media, especially those writers/articles with Jewish themes. There’s such an obvious “love/hate” going on with many of these “folks.”
Starting above we have the gentleman who with a very serious face lectures us that:
Jews overwhelming (sic) support an ideology based on placing people in groups (by race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, occupation, country of origin, and every possible subset), so they have zero standing when they complain that they’re targeted as a group.
Well shucks, I guess we deserved that Holocaust then — you know, because we “support an ideology” based upon “placing people in groups” (your eloquence is stunning). Oy. What ideology would that be? I mean, are you talking about Liberalism, or Judaism itself?
If you’re trying (and failing) to make the point that (gasp) *American* Jews hold predominantly liberal views and ally themselves with the Democrats which, as a group, contain many leftists — and that these leftists now serve as the world’s largest source of antisemitism(?) If that’s what you’re trying to say, then I kinda think everyone here pretty much knows that already.
Too bad you can’t express yourself clearly. My guess is there’s more to your statement though than your (ultimately simplistic, rude, and indeed crude) point about Jews, the “ideology” of groups, and the “zero standing” we have to “complain” — ’cause you know, we’re *always* complaining — I mean, what’s with that anyway?
You know without the keen insight of social philosophers such as yourself, us Jews would continue to hoodwink the world. I, for one, am glad you’re “calling us out.”
–
Then we have the eminent Viking Mr Ragnar who soberly lectures us about the implications of the half-life of Polonium and how we’ve been mislead (you can never trust those sneaky Jews). Ya think maybe a few of us may also have studied Physics?
Ya think maybe you might have consulted one of the, oh, I don’t know, 20-odd articles which have been written on this subject all making the same fundamental calculation (which, apparently you failed to make before showering us with your wisdom): that the mass required to be physically on the body of Mr Arafat at the time of his death to support what was found now by natural decay would have been a veritable cannonball tied to his ankle.
You were even then given a way out, an honorable exit as it were by the polite and kindly commenter, Stan. Alas, you failed to take it.
I think I’ll just leave it there — this year’s installment of the wild and wacky types attracted by our unique PJ-Media mojo (and we *all* know what the “J” stands for).
There is more but Ragnar will not notice it.
He says that any lab could tell the difference between old or new Polonium isotope. Not even close.
First, 210 Po is an alpha emitter with a weak gamma spike. Very few labs, these are nuclear physics labs not medical ones, can detect or generate a spectrum for alpha radiation. Any hospital can measure gamma radiation. There is no medical use for alpha radiation so the very specialized equipment is localized to a few labs.
More important the lab can only tell you the level of activity now. The energy spectrum never changes. Only the level of activity changes which depends on the amount of isotope you are measuring . Dilute it x10 and measure you get 1/10 level of activity for the same sample size. The spectrum only reflects the concentration of those atoms in the sample, not how old they are unless you knew the original dose and how much time has passed.
For Arafat you also need to consider the biological load. If you swallowed polonium how much of it would end up in your underwear?
It turns out that Po concentrates in solid organs like liver and GI tract. Some will be excreted into body fluids but those activities would be very small in comparison. So any activity in toothbrush or underwear would be very small in comparison to the total dose.
In terms of toxicology this is nowhere. After this much time the organs hardly exist and there is the issue of contamination from groundwater or other sources. The little we know about the medical records does not support ingested radiation poisoning. He did not present with pancyopenia and massive GI failure.
He might have been poisoned by something. What we do know is brain bleed secondary to DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulopathy) That is not etiology, it is an end result from multiple systemic organ failure which can result from a laundry list of causes.
There is certainly much not published and I along with many others would love to review the medical records.
Were peppermint sticks to fall out of the sky, Jews would be blamed. Jews are feared for their Phoenix-like ability to withstand centuries of annihilation schemes and their miraculous success in hostile environments. Those who lodge antisemitic attacks in the name of political correctness cannot face their own insecurity, and resent Jewish brains, determination and will to excel. Envy is at the root of it all.
In reference to the author’s doubt of Arafat’s homosexuality I strongly advice him to read the book (Red Horizon)of his colleague columnist at PJ-Media, Ion M. Pacepa, ( defected to the US in 1978) who was the foreign intelligence chief of Romania and advisor to Pres Ceaucescu, and had a rank of a lt Gen. In the book he describes Arafat as an insatiable homosexual. Arafat most probably died of AIDS and all other complications… (That his soul may burn once and forever!)
I guess the most exercise he got was buggering little boys.
I suspect you are right. In fact it was probably his only exercise, aside from stuffing his face. When a Muslim “martyr” goes to “Paradise” his first task is choose: Girls, Boys, or Livestock (sorry, no pigs). If Arafat had died a Great Shahid, I’m sure we all know what his choice would be. Muslim women and girls, who kill themselves for Allah, on the other hand, have only two choices: Girls, and Vegetables. It hardly seems fair, but then, neither is Islam.
I’m under the impression that his attending physicians in France indicated death was due to complications related to AIDs. That said, his supporters will probably concoct some way to blame Israel.
Bottom line: He’s gone. Good riddance.
Whoever killed Arafat deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps revoke the one that went to the O-Bomb.
Have you forgotten that the Nobel Committee awarded Uncle Yasser a Peace Prize back in 1994? Yes, that was for holding off a few months on recommencing his wholesale slaughter of Jews (preferably unarmed, unsuspecting Jews boarding buses, or taking their grandchildren to ice-cream parlors, etc.). He also took particular pleasure in murdering Jews on Jewish holy days or Jewish cultural events (like bat mitzvahs). His aim was always to kill Jewish children first, Jewish old-folks second, Jewish mothers third, and Jewish soldiers fourth. All others were mere gravy to him.
Oh, and I nearly forgot the other reason why Yasser was awarded European Gold: He invented the brilliant practice of placing PLO munitions depots and factories in the basements of “Palestinian” mosques, hospitals (Western-built, of course), elementary schools, and retirement asylums. I mean, if that won’t inculcate peace among your terror targets, what will?
That said, I fully expect that the Swedish Peace Prize, in the upcoming cycle, will go to Hamas. For tirelessly expanding upon the dedicated works of Yasser Arafat — including the amassing of even-more-Jew-killing-efficient Iranian rocket launchers in “Palestinian” school yards, refugee-aid-distribution centers, and so forth.
Why do you suppose his widow refused an autopsy? Afraid of what that would find? How could his French doctors not know exactly what was the problem? They knew, of course. Had it been radiation poisoning I kinda think someone would have blasted that news everywhere..the French being the French.
Even without evidence, I’m still going with the boyfriend, in the closet, with his you know what.
Actually he was most-likely a nine-year-old boy. Although I am *sure* that the current Iranian president is quit right in assuring that man-boy Homosexuality is ABSOLUTELY forbidden by the Koran. Oh yeah. As for little girls, well, look to Mohammed himself for elucidation on that.
Bless whatever or whoever killed Arafat. But I have thought for years that his final demise was caused by AIDs. Will his exhumation reveal that, or will again the truth be obscured? (Re “final demise,” is that a tautology?) Anyway, Arafat can always be the epitome of evil, if anyone needs one.
What happened to all the little boys he abused? Rumour had it he had a different boy each day? Why didn’t intrepid journalists uncover the abuse?
Agree with most of the article, but not with this bit:
“On one hand, the media and intelligentsia are most forgiving to, say, the United States when its air attacks accidentally kill civilians. No details and exaggerations of the results of its bombing strikes in Yemen or Pakistan and full explanation of the context.”
…have you not seen what libtarded trolls always spew forth about “Amerikkka!?”
Led by such as Noam Chomsky, their self-hatred is boundless and speaks for itself!