Inconvenient Initiatives

"The Palestinians are using Israel as a scapegoat. If Arafat was murdered, then he (the killer) should be sought among the heads of the Palestinian Authority."
Raanan Gissin, former aide to Israel's former President Ariel Sharon

"I say, with all the details available about Yasser Arafat's death, that he was killed, and that Israel killed him."
Tawfik Tirawi, Palestinian investigative team

Swiss and Russian reports agree Chairman Yasser Arafat's death "was not caused by old age or disease, but as a result of a toxic substance", according to Dr. Abdullah Bashir, a medical expert, part of the three-man Palestinian team investigating the former Palestinian leader's death. Confirming, he insists, that he was poisoned, a line long held by the Palestinians.

No serious investigators with any kind of scientific/medical authority, however, are prepared to testify that Yasser Arafat's 2004 death in a Paris hospital resulted from the malign intention of a deliberately delivered death potion of polonium. Nothing has been produced despite four investigations and hundreds of stacks of medical reports, to present a hard-and-fast argument of hard evidence.

The Russian report received by Palestinian officials was inconclusive regarding evidence of any role radioactive polonium may have played in his death. Russia knows a great deal about the use of deadly polonium causing the death of people inconvenient to the Kremlin; they speak with authority. The Swiss scientists, on the other hand, feel the Palestinian leader was likely poisoned by the lethal substance.

When Ariel Sharon, as Prime Minister of his country decided to visit a religious heritage site sacred to Judaism, Yasser Arafat immediately accused him of insulting Islam, profaning an Islamic site that was built over the Judaic site, by his presence. The resulting demonstrations morphed into a second Intifada, a time of rage and violence that capped the refusal of Arafat to ratify a peace accord that offered the Palestinians all they had demanded.

Israel had been helping the Palestinian Authority to launch the infrastructure of a responsible civil structure in preparation for embarking upon its sovereign nationhood in due time. Along with steering the Palestinians in civil infrastructure, there was an agreement to arm and train Palestinian security forces to work alongside the IDF for the purpose of tamping down terrorism and ensuring security prevailed.

In the second Intifada, those Palestinian security forces used the skills they had learned from the IDF and the weapons they had been given, to attack the very source of their knowledge and arms. This situation did not endear its maker to the state that had attempted to guide it to civility and cooperation. Resulting in Yasser Arafat being secluded in his Ramallah bunker, closely monitored by the IDF.

Within that bunker he was restless, but secure, surrounded by trusted colleagues and underlings, along with security forces dedicated to his well-being. Who would be able to reach him other than those he trusted? And although his wife insisted that Israel was responsible for his death, she rejected the practicality of a revealing autopsy, insisting he be buried immediately on death.

Since the evidence of the presence of polonium is known to have a short lifespan, though it is a common element in the food we eat, the air we breathe, the soil that surrounds us, what purpose could there be in exhuming the body and setting up an investigation at this stage? Raanan Gissin in recommending that the search for the alleged killer among the heads of the Palestinian Authority is not removed from reality.

It was well known that the more aggressive branches of the PLO suspected Arafat, opposed him and he feared their potential for a deadly attack on his august person. There might even have been some who were so disgusted by the wealth he and his cronies had amassed through milking the substantial funds transferred from the international community to further the well-being of the Palestinians that they felt he deserved death.

In which case, it might be a good idea for the current president of the PA to exercise due diligence in protecting himself from any possible personal violence directed toward him. The former Palestinian intelligence chief, Tawfik Tirawi has floated the idea of a possible international tribunal to investigate Arafat's death. As a symbol of Palestinian intransigence and Israeli betrayal, it would create terrific buzz.

Mahmoud Abbas has so far withheld his counsel. An energized new probe, while inviting closer scrutiny of Israel and its conceivable motivations might also have the unfortunate effect of too closely scrutinizing Arafat's Palestinian aides and bodyguards. Too close to home for comfort.