Uri Avnery: Israel poisoned Arafat

More signs that Arafat was murdered by Israel with US collusion. I wonder if the UN will ask for an international investigation like it did over Rafiq Hariri's assassination in Lebanon.

If Arafat were still alive
Israel should take no comfort from inter-Arab conflicts. Peace depends on Palestinian unity

Uri Avnery
Wednesday January 31, 2007
The Guardian

'If Arafat were alive..." One hears this phrase increasingly often in conversations with Palestinians, and also with Israelis and foreigners. "If Arafat were alive, what's happening now in Gaza wouldn't be happening..." "If Arafat were alive, we would have somebody to talk with..." "If Arafat were alive, Islamic fundamentalism would not have won among the Palestinians and would have lost some force in the neighbouring countries!"

In the meantime, the unanswered questions come up again: how did Yasser Arafat die? Was he murdered?

On the way back from Arafat's funeral in 2004, I ran into Jamal Zahalka, a member of the Israeli Knesset. I asked him if he believed that Arafat was murdered. Zahalka, a doctor of pharmacology, answered "Yes!" without hesitation. That was my feeling too. But a hunch is not proof. It is only a product of intuition, common sense and experience.

Recently we got a kind of confirmation. Just before he died last month, Uri Dan, Ariel Sharon's loyal mouthpiece for almost 50 years, published a book in France. It includes a report of a conversation Sharon told him about, with President Bush. Sharon asked for permission to kill Arafat and Bush gave it to him, with the proviso that it must be done undetectably. When Dan asked Sharon whether it had been carried out, Sharon answered: "It's better not to talk about that." Dan took this as confirmation.

The rest of the piece is about how Israelis should not be gloating over the fighting in the Occupied Territories.

Comments

[Adam]

Well, I think the evidence that Hariri was murdered is a bit stronger than the evidence that Arafat was murdered (huge car bomb vs. old man falls ill, book claims someone wanted to kill him). God knows the Israelis tried to kill him many, many times but I hardly think it's suspicious that an elderly man who's lived a hard life and was confined to a half-destroyed, crumbling compound for his last years ended up dying. If the Israelis did kill him, it was a dumb risk to take since I can't believe he was going to last much longer anyway.

[rl]

scientific investigations are never enough for consipiracy theorists of any shape or size. besides, if you want to play with this one a little more, the question is, why did Israel wait so long? I'm sure some what can come up with some creative justification and reasoning.

[Issandr El Amrani]

Fair point - should be investigated.

[benjamin]

Well, another argument often heard has to do with the French medical authorities' silence about the causes of his death, which would be part of some raison d'Etat and ultimately an evidence of the conspiracy. This is a bad argument, since under French law it was indeed clearly forbidden to say anything publicly... but not to inform Arafat's relatives. His doctors probably did tell his wife about what they think. So, ask Suha. But maybe there is nothing special to reveal.