Did Arafat actually finance suicide bombers? Media gadfly Ali Abunimah has posted a dissection of the document produced by Sharon: "On initial inspection, at least five of the names...were not suicide bombers, but rather people assassinated by Israeli death squads."
The alleged smoking gun hasn't been independently corroborated, but commentators like Chris Matthews uncritically accept its validity and
state the connection as fact: "[Arafat] pays for the dynamite and the bullets and relief benefits for their families."
Does the mainstream media check its skepticism at the door when it comes to statements by Israeli government officials or what?
posted by mediareport
on Apr 9, 2002 -
15 comments
As the violence in the Middle East escalates, and Arab anger grows over American support of Israel (especially among the masses), is
another oil embargo possible?
Oil may be the Arab world's daily bread, but it's also its only weapon — if, say, Arafat is killed or Israel goes too far in its incursions into Palestinian territories, popular sentiment in the already-shaky local regimes could force Arab governments to put up a show of defiance to calm their constituencies.
posted by Rastafari
on Apr 4, 2002 -
13 comments
This is why Yasser Arafat's, and the Palestinian Authority(sic)'s days are severely numbered: the sham capture and release last year of the guy responsible for yesterday's massacre. My prediction: Israel will completely reoccupy the territories in the next three months to clean out the place.
posted by ParisParamus
on Mar 28, 2002 -
55 comments
From David Remnick's analysis in The New Yorker. Faisal Husseini, a decided moderate among Yasir Arafat's leadership ranks, gave an interview not long before he died in which he compared Oslo to a Trojan horse, an intermediate, tactical step leading to the elimination of Israel. He said, "If you are asking me as a Pan-Arab nationalist what are the Palestinian borders according to the higher strategy, I will immediately reply: 'From the river to the sea' "—that is, from the Jordan to the Mediterranean.
posted by semmi
on Mar 17, 2002 -
7 comments
Arafat's duplicity revealed on video. His call for an end to terrorism, published in The NY Times suggests peacful intentions. This article claims he has made videos which suggest to Arab audiences that his talk is merely strategic and he has the elimination of the State Of Israel as his goal
posted by Postroad
on Feb 4, 2002 -
35 comments
If Only It Was Arafat. Good. If he was who they say he was, he deserved it. Keep Playing Hardball. The Israelis should play this kind of hardball for a few years. Then the rocks will stop, things will settle down, perhaps the Palestineans will stop claiming Jerusalem, get some kind of real government, and then, perhaps their own little state. Then again, since no Arab state comes close to being a democracy, perhaps that will never happen.
posted by ParisParamus
on Apr 5, 2001 -
12 comments
In an attempt to preempt Arafat's declaration of an independent state, Israel is threatening to
unilaterally declare its own borders. "In its most absolute form, Israel would separate by creating its own borders, thereby carving out a Palestinian state as well, although in a form unlikely to be acceptable to Palestinians.
" Okay, now imagine trying to draw lines on
a map like this!.
posted by lagado
on Oct 22, 2000 -
8 comments
