The Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv is reporting that Yassir Arafat has Hepatitis B. Time is reporting that Yassir Arafat has stomach cancer.
Either way, Arafat is likely not to survive longer than a few months, quite possibly less. The death or removal of Arafat will create a vacuum in power in the Middle East as his newly appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei is now threatening to quit as Mahmoud Abbas did a few weeks ago. Former Middle East Envoy Dennis Ross is predicting some kind of coalescence around a new leader – but who or what that leadership will be is unknown.
The death of Arafat would possibly lead to chaos in the short term, but in the long term Arafat is the single biggest obstacle to peace in the region. Arafat has nothing to gain from a negotiated settlement and everything to gain from continuing the bloody intifada against Israel.
If someone moderate like Mahmoud Abbas can take the reins in the aftermath of Arafat’s death, there is a chance that a negotiated settlement can happen and the road map can proceed from where it ended. In the end, the natural death of Yassir Arafat is probably the best thing for the region – it gets Arafat off the stage and unable to continue his obstructionist policy without creating even more emnity between Israel and the Palestinians. In the end, peace is not possible so long as Arafat is alive and in charge – once he is gone, there is a chance, even if small, that there can be a legitimate and lasting shot at peace.
I just want to give the “real” information regarding a question someone asked me few days ago:
“Ces morts portent à 3.532 le nombre des personnes tuées depuis le début de l’Intifada fin septembre 2000, dont 2.627 Palestiniens et 842 Israéliens.”
(I guess/hope everyone understand – at least the nnumbers)
This information is not from Le Monde, but from Le Figaro, which is the main right-wing newspaper.
I asked you that question. And like I said before, I did not ask it to be an asshole. I was really curious, since I have never read that in an American newspaper. The US press is not always clear about the facts and I wanted other sources to read. And by the way, I speak french just fine so I can read this paper. (you know other things besides the numbers)
That’s funny that you never see these figures in the US press, because we see it growing all the time in french newspapers. here is an example just from today :
http://www.lefigaro.fr/perm/afp/mon/031010142921.pfunziwj.html
In this article, there is a part that I like so much I will translate it:
“Dozens of explosiv loads, anti-tank missiles, automatic weapons and grenades have been throwned against israeli’s forces.”
and from the same article:
“the (israeli) army declared one slightly injured soldier during the operation which name is “root-cure”.
lucky guys, aren’t they? This is beyond military superiority: They play in “God Mode”! Not all muslims fighters are “haschichins”, and would totally miss their targets. Maybe someone is mistaken missiles with stones or something…
Ah, the old "more Palestinians than Israelis have died, so the Israelis are worse" canard.
* The Palestinians claim suicide bombers as casualties. They also claim Palestinians killed in bomb making accidents (and this happens quite frequently) as casualties even though their deaths were unrelated to Israeli action.
* Israelis have adapted their medical system to respond to terrorism. “Research published this year [December 2002] suggests that the most significant factor in keeping the homocide rate down is… faster ambulance and better care in the emergency room… The murder rate is being artificially suppressed because thousands of potential homicide victims… are now recieving swift medical attention and surviving.” (The New York Times Magazine, December 15, 2002. pg. 66) Thanks to Israeli groups like Hatzalah (WARNING: 120MB MPEG) and other civilian emergency medical agencies, the casualty rate in Israeli is only 30% of what it would otherwise be.
* The Palestinians have deliberately refused Israeli medical assistance that would lower their casualty rate. The Israeli health minister offered to treat any and all Palestinians injured in IDF actions, but the Palestinians refused to transfer victims, despite the fact that their health system cannot adaquately treat victims. (Jerusalem Post April 18, 2003) Note that the IMF found that Arafat personally stole $800 million in foreign development funds that could have created a hospital system that could have treated these injuries.
* The number of noncombatants killed by the IDF is far, far lower than the number of noncombatant Israelis killed by the Palestinians. An internal IDF review conducted in April of 2003 found that “18% of the nearly 2,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the uprising began in September 2000 were civilians with no connection to acts of terror.” (David F. Green, “Fighting By The Book,” The Boston Globe, April 20, 2003.) This leads to a total of under 400 Palestinian civilians killed. By comparison, of the 800+ Israelis killed at that time, 567 of them were civilians, a figure that discounts IDF reservists and includes 40% women and young girls.
* International law distinguishes between collateral damage, which is permissable, and intentional attacks on civilians, which are not. In the case of Israel, the civilians killed were not the direct targets of attack and were killed because they were either being used as human shields by Palestinians (which is a violation of international law and the Geneva Convention) or were unintentionally killed by Israeli forces. In the case of suicide bombings, civilians were directly targeted. There is no moral equivalence between the two.
* The Israelis fight under strict rules of engagement which prohibit the use of the “neighbor proceedure” in which a Palestinian neighbor to a group of terrorists is given a bulletproof vest and sent to knock on the door and ask the terrorists to surrender. When a Palestinian was killed doing this, the Israeli Supreme Court banned the proceedure. Given that this proceedure saved the lives of many Israeli soldiers it is fair to say that this action shows that no nation in the history of modern warfare has done more to protect human rights when faced with such conditions as Israel. Indeed, no country, not France, and not even the United States operates under the kind of conditions that Israel has and operates with the same restraint.
* “The Palestinians claim suicide bombers as casualties”/”even though their deaths were unrelated to Israeli action”
=>I think you’re really missing the point here. anyone would rather be a CEO than a bomber. These people are terrorists BECAUSE of the israelis’actions.
* “The Palestinians have deliberately refused Israeli medical assistance ”
Of course…yeah.
* “An internal IDF review conducted in April of 2003 found that[…]”
what a nice source to get a fair point of view on what’s really happening.
* “collateral damage, which is permissable”
Are you taling about international law in Guantanamo, or the real one. Because just in case you were not aware, pre-emptive war (and this applies both to the Iraqi and the israelo-palestinian case) is illegal.
* a)”The Israelis fight under strict rules of engagement which prohibit the use of the “neighbor proceedure””
Do you think any other country ever think about using such proceedures before?
b)”When a Palestinian was killed doing this, the Israeli Supreme Court banned the proceedure”
So according to you this “proceedure” killed ONE palestinian?
So it all is Israel’s fault. Such an attitude can only be called anti-Semitic. It is never excusable and it is never necessary to deliberately kill innocent civilians. There is no justifications for the actions of the Palestinians towards the Israelis – and your own argument only boils down to “the Jews have it coming.”
See the Jerusalem Post of May 22, 2001.
Of course, the IDF has its records open for others to inspect, while the Palestinians have deliberately inflated casualty claims for political purposes. The Palestinians claimed that 3000 had been killed by Israel at Jenin, and when the UN investigated they found the actual death toll was 52, almost all of whom had already been identified as terrorists. (See Jean Elstain, Just War Against Terror, New York: Basic Books, 2003. pg.87).
I’m referring to the Geneva Convention. Furthermore, the Israelis are not engaging in premptive action, they only move into Palestinian areas after an attack has already occurred.
Actually yes, Israel is one of only a handful of countries that have banned this procedure. France used it in Indochina and Algeria, and they still have it as a valid tactic in Ivory Coast and elswhere. The Russians did it in Chechnya as well.
Yes, only one, Nidal Abu M’Khisan, who was killed on August 14, 2002 when Palestinian gunmen thought he was an IDF soldier.
In any event, there is no moral, ethical, or legal justification for the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians through suicide bombings. No crime of Israel perported or real can possibly ever justify deliberately killing women and children.