Yassir Arafat Dies

[The Freak]

http://news10.net/storyfull1.asp?id=8512


Yasser Arafat, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has died in a French military hospital after a brief undisclosed illness.

Arafat, was flown to a French military hospital from his home in Ramallah on October 29. Doctors in Paris said his condition had worsened in recent days as he slipped deeper into a coma. He passed away Wednesday at about 7:30 p.m. PST.

Arafat, 75, who has been a symbol of the Palestinians' struggle for independence, will be flown to Cairo for a funeral and then buried at his compound in Ramallah.

Israel's interior minister says his country will allow for a "respectful" funeral, and won't cause interference. He says Israeli forces will remain on the sidelines unless there's unrest.

Palestinian parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh will take over the presidency of the Palestinian Authority for 60 days until a new president can be elected.

In addition to heading up the Palestinian Authority, Arafat also served as leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fatah. Officials say a decision on who will lead those groups won't be made until after Arafat's death.

Arafat spent much of his life fighting for the Palestinian cause. He first became involved in the struggle while living in Kuwait in 1958. He was later successful in making the effort to establish a Palestinian homeland the central political issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In 1969 Arafat became the chairman of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a nationalist group that advocated Palestinian statehood and pursued armed struggle with Israel.

As head of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Arafat was frequently denounced as a terrorist. During the 1970, PLO fighters were involved in a series of hijackings and terrorist attacks to publicize their struggle for a homeland.

Arafat changed the direction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1988 when he spoke before a special session of the United Nations, declaring his group was renouncing terrorism and supported "the right of all parties concerned in the Middle East conflict to live in peace and security, including the state of Palestine, Israel and other neighbors".

In 1994 he, along with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, received the Nobel Peace Prize for the Oslo Accords of 1993, which called for Palestinian self-rule in Israel's West Bank and Gaza Strip.

That peace agreement created the Palestinian Authority. In 1996, Arafat was elected president of the PA.

Hopes for peace between Israelis and Palestinians were shattered in 2000, when a renewed Palestinian uprising began. Arafat once again found himself labeled a terrorist, as fighters for the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad organizations undertook dozens of suicide bombing attacks, many against civilian targets.

For the last two years, Israeli forces have effectively bottled up Arafat in his Ramallah compound. Israeli government officials made it clear that if Arafat left Ramallah he would not be allowed to return.

Arafat was married to Suha Tawil, a Palestinian humanitarian worker half his age. She recently became the target of criticism for living in Paris while Arafat stayed at his compound in Ramallah.

[bdouble013]

This could be big over in that part of the world. When the leader of an already unstable group dies one can only imagine the potential for even more chaos.

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by bdouble013

This could be big over in that part of the world. When the leader of an already unstable group dies one can only imagine the potential for even more chaos.

coughIRAQcough...

[quick dog]

Arafat was a terrorist and a malignant problem for the Palestinians and everyone else on the planet. He single-handedly queered Clinton's land-for-peace deal, which incidently, would have been the best deal the Palestinians will ever get. Now that Arafat has assumed room temperature, peace and prosperity in Palestine is possible.

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by quick dog

Now that Arafat has assumed room temperature, peace and prosperity in Palestine is possible.

:spittake: Not in this millenium, QD.

[VF21]

Back when Francisco Franco lingered for months, the news had nightly status reports. His condition was always "stable." Well, stable can mean anything...including room temperature.

After he died, SNL did a running gag for months, leading their Weekly News Update with the "breaking story" that Francisco Franco was, in fact, still dead.

I can't help but wonder what the lead story on this Saturday's Weekend News Update is going to be. I would absolutely LOVE to see Chevy Chase in a cameo resurrection of his old role, intoning, "This just in. Yassir Arafat is still dead..."

[monk]

Hell just got a little stinkier.

[VF21]

News update from 1 a.m. - On the Record w/Greta Von Susteren - Yassir Arafat is still dead.

[sloter]

I woke with a tear in my eye this morning.

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by sloter

I woke with a tear in my eye this morning.

The Palestinians shot bullets in the air and burned tires in his memory.

[twocents]

you might not know the "facts"; that is excusable. arafat, despite his very probable corrupted affairs, was still the leader of the palestinian people. please be more sensitive with your comments.

[RoyalDiva]

Originally Posted by monk

Hell just got a little stinkier.

Agreed.

[6th]

Originally Posted by twocents

you might not know the "facts"; that is excusable. arafat, despite his very probable corrupted affairs, was still the leader of the palestinian people. please be more sensitive with your comments.

Facts? To teach and encourage the murder/slaughter of non-military individuals in terrorist activities? That is the only "fact" necessary to know to feel as some do about his passing.

[RoyalDiva]

Originally Posted by 6th

Facts? To teach and encourage the murder/slaughter of non-military individuals in terrorist activities? That is the only "fact" necessary to know to feel as some do about his passing.

Exactly. And one wonders just how many suicide bombing attacks are going to happen now in honor of his passing.

[ILV]

Originally Posted by quick dog

Arafat was a terrorist and a malignant problem for the Palestinians and everyone else on the planet. He single-handedly queered Clinton's land-for-peace deal, which incidently, would have been the best deal the Palestinians will ever get. Now that Arafat has assumed room temperature, peace and prosperity in Palestine is possible.

The second part of that problem still exists...sharon...maybe if he gets replaced....

[quick dog]

Originally Posted by ILV

The second part of that problem still exists...sharon...maybe if he gets replaced....

The ultimate fate of the Palestinian people lies with Palestinians, not Sharon or any other Israeli leader. Yassar Arafat, and other prominent Arab rulers, have used and abused the Palestinians for decades as a means to maintain their personal power and wealth. In the American vernacular, the plight of Palestinians has been the world's biggest "red herring" issue of all time. Beware of Arabs bearing red herrings.

You may now close the thread.

[HndsmCelt]

Interesting takes on Arafat's life/death.I wonder what people will say when Sharon dies?

[mcsluggo]

Q.D.

I agreed with your first post on this matter, but not this one.

The palestinian "leadership" has certainly done very little to effectively further the palestinian people, going to the full extent of actually being huge factors in the continued plight of their wards. However, they have CERTAINLY not been alone in this high minded goal (keeping the palestinians squashed). Israel has played a huge role here as well. The palestinians have been very effectively crapped on by both their own leadership AND the Israelis for quite a long time.

Arafat and the Likud party have essentially been clone copies of each other that have existed in a perfectly simbiotic relationship, as far as I'm concerned. They are both rotten to the core, and the ONLY thing that has kept their own people from ripping them to shreds has been the spectre of the "that other evil guy". Both have been extremely masterful at playing the boogeyman image of the other against their own people to prop up their fetid decrepid filthy policies. The Likud party has got to be TERRIFIED right now that moderately respectable leadership will take over in the west bank now. Where would that leave them? Fortunately for them it shouldn't be too hard to rock things up a little bit, ensuring further instability and inserection which can be capitalized upon with an Iron fist ensuring that the cycle of reprisals against each other for another day. <whew, close one>

[twocents]

this is not the place to discuss these things; so i will just keep quite. i cannot make others see what they deliberately choose to ignore. i have come to a point where i simply do not care.

[Bricklayer]

Ok guys/gals, I'm going to go ahead and close this one for the normal avoid politics reasons. Nobody's posted anything particularly wrong, just policy.