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Just heard a rumour Arafat kicked the bucket

  
 
I'm Rick Jones, bitch
14:37 / 04.11.04
Anyone confirm/deny?
 
 
sleazenation
14:47 / 04.11.04
Israeli and luxemburgian news sources state he has undergone a brain scan that can be used to assess brain death - French and Palestinian organisations deny he is dead - hw could well be dead with his body kept 'alive' on a ventilator...
 
 
Cherielabombe
14:50 / 04.11.04
Wow, first a Bush mandate and now Arafat may have croaked. The world's looking better and better...
 
 
sleazenation
14:51 / 04.11.04
Officially he is still alive, but critically ill.
 
 
ibis the being
14:54 / 04.11.04
Bush is holding a press conference right now, and reporter (perhaps mistakenly) told the President that Arafat is dead. Bush answered, "Well, my first reaction is to say, God bless his soul."
 
 
diz
15:17 / 04.11.04
i had argued in another thread that both Israel and the US have demonized Arafat and blamed him for inciting terrorist violence, when in reality, he's been a limiting factor for at least the last decade or so, holding the moderate ground as best as he can against the radicals. when he dies, i said, there's going to be a rude awakening when they can't find another puppy.

someone (i forget who, and i apologize - Haus, maybe?) pointed out, soberingly, that that's not likely to result in a rude awakening so much as it will become an excuse for ethnic cleansing. i think that was a good point, especially considering the likely long-term calculus Sharon is making with the Gaza pullout ("if i give them Gaza, they can't bitch when i take the West Bank.")

now consider this in the context of the forthcoming bloodbath in Fallujah and all the saber-rattling with regard to Iran and the fact that Bush's supporters believe the battle of Armageddon will happen in the Middle East, and happen soon.

duck and cover, people.
 
 
LykeX
16:11 / 04.11.04
My news are saying that he's in a coma and that it's confirmed by a Palestinian minister.
 
 
Never or Now!
03:05 / 11.11.04
Yasser Arafat 1929-2004
 
 
*
04:55 / 11.11.04
Google news search turns up tons of articles related to the hotly-contested future of Arafat's supposedly vast hoard of wealth; very little on the implications of his death for the future of the region. MSNBC actually has some interesting quotes from the leaders of various political groups. They're very telling-- not of anything the world didn't already know, but nonetheless, very telling.
 
 
bjacques
09:04 / 11.11.04
Arafat stashed it under the Big W but--er--the Israeli Defense Force bulldozed it when they took out an orange grove. Start digging, guys.

On the bright side, if the whole shithou^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcradle of three of the world's major religions goes up in flames at least the US and Russia won't get into it like (US fundies prayed) they would have in the 1980s.

(now playing: "Arafat in a Coma" by Morrissey)
 
 
Not Here Still
18:09 / 12.11.04
A funeral attended by hundreds of well-wishers and dignitaries from around the world, for a man who was a hero to any right thinking person.

But enough about him. What about the Middle East now?

Who thinks that this is - as people were saying before they'd even turned off the mach- ahem, before he even died, I mean - an amazing opportunity for peace? (Like GB and TB)

And who thinks peace's chances even more fucked today than we were at the start of the week?

Oh, and

MORDECHAI VANUNU WAS RE-ARRESTED YESTERDAY.


A good day to bury bad news, as they say
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
20:57 / 12.11.04
Someone commented elsewhere on how little response this thread has got, but I wonder what there is to say at this point - I hope it's fairly clear to most people here that all this talk of a "new opportunity for peace" is nonsense unless one is subscribing to the definition of "peace" which equals "the total and final crushing of the Palestinians", as I'm sure Sharon and certain members of the Bush administration are. No Arafat will probably mean a new leader less inclined to make concessions to Israel, and will therefore mean a new pretext for further IDF aggression...

It's tricky: how do you respond to the passing of someone who fucked up a great deal, but not necessarily in the ways the majority of the mainstream media have represented (blah blah he sabotaged Oslo, blah blah he didn't do enough to prevent terrorism all that time he was on fucking lockdown)?
 
 
FinderWolf
14:52 / 07.01.05
this is hilarious:

TV Appeal by Richard Gere Perplexes Palestinians

Thu Jan 6, 7:25 AM ET Entertainment - Reuters

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - He's been a prostitute's rich beau, an officer, a gentleman and a gigolo, but Palestinians can't fathom actor Richard Gere (news)'s latest incarnation as a cheerleader for their elections this weekend.

Well known for his vocal support of Tibet's Dalai Lama and celebrated for his captivating good looks, Gere urged Palestinians in a television commercial broadcast ahead of Sunday's poll in the West Bank and Gaza to get out to vote for a new president to succeed Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), who died in November.

"Hi, I'm Richard Gere and I'm speaking for the entire world. We're with you during this election time. It's really important. Get out and vote," Gere says in the English-language advertisement. He repeats the phrase, "Get out and vote" in Arabic.

But many voters, already struggling with the labyrinthine politics of the West Bank and Gaza, say they have never heard of the actor who swept Debra Winger off her feet as a dashing Navy officer in the 1982 film "An Officer and a Gentleman" and were even less interested when they were told he's an American.

"I don't even know who the candidates are other than Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), let alone this Gere," Gaza soap factory worker Manar an-Najar told Reuters Wednesday.

"We don't need the Americans' intervention. We know who to elect. Not like them -- they elected a moron."

Arafat's death has stirred international hopes of ending more than four years of Middle East violence. Moderate Fatah (news - web sites) faction candidate Mahmoud Abbas is the front-runner to succeed him in the first Palestinian election since 1996.

The Gere spot, sponsored by grassroots Israeli-Palestinian peace lobby One Voice, recalled ads put out by Hollywood notables to support Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) in November's U.S. elections. He lost to President Bush (news - web sites).

Gere, 55, said in a statement issued through his Los Angeles-based publicist that he is not "officially associated" with One Voice. But he added: "this is a truly historic moment for the Palestinians as well as for the entire region, with the possibility for a real vision of peace and security for all people."

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