'Arafat did not die of poisoning' - French experts.

'Arafat did not die of poisoning' - French experts. (France24).

French experts reexamining evidence have confirmed their earlier conclusion that the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was not the result of poisoning, a prosecutor told AFP Monday.

The prosecutor for the western Paris suburb of Nanterre said the experts found there was no foul play in Arafat's death, which sparked immediate and enduring conspiracy rumours.

A centre in the Swiss city of Lausanne had tested biological samples taken from Arafat's personal belongings given to his widow after his death, and found "abnormal levels of polonium" – an extremely radioactive toxin, but stopped short of saying that he had been poisoned by polonium.

French experts "maintain that the polonium-210 and lead-210 found in Arafat's grave and in the samples are of an environmental nature," Nanterre prosecutor Catherine Denis said.

The reevaluation of earlier data "disproves the hypothesis of an acute ingestion of polonium-210 in the days preceding the appearance of symptoms," she said. Read the full story here.


Arafat's personal doctor : "Arafat died of AIDS" by Ibn-Khaldun

@Wellofgrief @MFS001 @roepme @ynkutner Indeed he did. http://t.co/ajnDB4bRus Here's more proof http://t.co/jfRsRStk4z

— IsraelMatzav (@IsraelMatzav) March 17, 2015

New EU[rabia] foreign policy chief: Recognizing a Palestinian state is not enough.

This undated image shows a young Federica Morgherini, the EU's new high representative for foreign affairs, with the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat.  probably dating back to the years of the Second Intifada when she worked for the Foreign Department of the DS

New EU[rabia] foreign policy chief: Recognizing a Palestinian state is not enough. (JPost).

Federica Mogherini chairs first meeting of EU foreign ministers since taking place of Catherine Ashton; says ministers will focus on what can be done to relaunch peace process and EU’s role.

European foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels Monday morning to discuss the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process amid growing calls by local politicians for the member states to unilaterally recognize Palestine as a state.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini of Italy, told reporters that the topic in front of the EU council of foreign ministers is boosting the EU’s role in a renewed peace process.

“What we need is not just recognition [of a Palestinian state]. We need  the building of a Palestinian state that can live next to the Israeli one in peace and security,” she said before the council meeting.

The meeting is the first one to be chaired by Mogherini who entered her post at the start of November, replacing Catherine Ashton. She immediately made a two-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, including Gaza.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiations broke down in April and have yet to be revived, although the US has been speaking with both Palestinians and Israelis about that possibility. Hmmmm....Mind-boggling that someone so unqualified for the job can get the job. More here.

Video - Mandela in Gaza: "If the only solution is violence, then we will use violence"

Video -  Mandela in Gaza: "If the only solution is violence, then we will use violence".



HT: TerreD'Israel.

White House compared Israel's parliament to Arafat's grave?

White House compared Israel's parliament to Arafat's grave?HT: WND.By Aaron Klein. JERUSALEM – In a conversation with the Palestinian Authority, a White House official apparently compared Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, to the gravesite of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, according to a PA official speaking to WND.

The Palestinian official, who asked that his name be withheld, said he was in contact with members of the Obama administration regarding Obama’s slated visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the U.S. president will meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The official said the White House turned down a request for Obama to pay homage to Arafat at the deceased leader’s grave, which is located just outside Abbas’s offices.

When asked to explain why Obama would not visit Arafat’s resting place, the PA official claimed that a White House official made the comparison between the gravesite and Israel’s Knesset.

“The official explained to me that just as Obama won’t address the Knesset, which is a symbol of Israeli nationalism, so too he won’t visit the grave, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism,” the PA official said.

Arafat developed a terrorist apparatus responsible for deadly attacks against scores of Israelis. He presided over the so-called second intifada, or terrorist war against Israel.

Obama, meanwhile, is taking some criticism here for his decision not to address the parliament, a custom for visiting U.S. presidents.

Former Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin told Israel National News that “when President Obama avoids the Knesset in Jerusalem, that’s a worrying sign, it’s a statement of lack of faith in the representatives of the nation he’s addressing.”

Yaakov Ahimeir, a columnist for Israel Today, the country’s second largest newspaper, wrote that the Knesset is “preparing itself to digest Obama’s insulting refusal to deliver his keynote address at the head of the plenum, thereby failing to acknowledge the Knesset as a symbol of Israeli sovereignty.” Hmmmm.......He doesn't recognize the 'state' of Israel in it's current form?Read the full story here.

Video: Suha Arafat Admits 2000 War of Terror was Premeditated.

Yasser Arafat’s widow, Suha, admitted that the late leader of the “Palestinian” people had decided long before former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s contentious visit to the Temple Mount that he would launch a war of terror, a.k.a. “Intifada”, against the Jewish state.
Sharon’s visit unleashed a wave of intense international condemnations and was widely, yet falsely, believed to have provided the impetus for the war of terror that was waged against the state of Israel.
The Intifada began when a PA policeman shot and killed IDF soldier Yossi Tabega who was sitting next to him on a joint jeep patrol.
Widely known as “The Second Intifada” or “The Oslo War,” the murderous onslaught peaked during 2001-2002 and was more or less over by 2007.
According to the Foreign Ministry website, during the reign of terror over 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, were murdered in buses, on roads, in cafes and restaurants, with tens of thousands more maimed, scarred and bereaved.
“Yasser Arafat had made a decision to launch the Intifada,” Suha told Dubai TV on December 16, in an interview translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
“Camp David had failed, and he said to me: ‘You should remain in Paris.’”

“I asked him why and he said: ‘Because I am going to start an Intifada. They want me to betray the Palestinian cause. They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so.’”
“’I do not want Zahwah’s friends in the future to say that Yasser Arafat abandoned the Palestinian cause and principles. I might be martyred, but I shall bequeath our historical heritage to Zahwa and to the children of Palestine,’” Suha said in the words of her late husband, referring to their daughter.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had offered to withdraw from 97 percent of Judea and Samaria, as well as 100 percent of Gaza. In addition, he agreed to dismantle 63 Jewish communities. In exchange for the 5 percent annexation of Jewish lands, Israel would increase the size of the Gaza territory by roughly a third.
Barak also made concessions on Jerusalem that many Israelis find unthinkable, agreeing that Arabs would maintain control over their holy places and have "religious sovereignty" over the Temple Mount.
Arafat flatly rejected the proposal, which has been more that any Israeli leader had offered in the past, deciding, instead, to unleash a war of terror against the State of Israel.

Russian Experts Arrive in West Bank for Arafat Exhumation.

Russian Experts Arrive in West Bank for Arafat Exhumation.(RN).Russian specialists have arrived in the West Bank to take part in the exhumation of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to establish the reasons for his death eight years ago, a source in the city of Ramallah told RIA Novosti on Monday. A new probe by French authorities was prompted earlier this year following the detection of radioactive polonium-210 on Arafat's personal effects provided by his wife. The Palestinian authorities said earlier Arafat’s body will be exhumed on Tuesday. Three Russian experts invited by the Palestinian National Administration (PNA) will be part of an international team, which also includes specialists from France and Switzerland.
They will be tasked with finding new facts that could reveal the true reasons behind Arafat’s death. The specialists will take samples from Arafat’s remains and bring them to their respective countries to be tested for polonium-210 or other lethal substances. The tests could take months, the Palestinian investigators said on Saturday. The former Palestinian leader’s body will be reburied the same day with military honors. Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for 35 years, died in Paris in November 2004 after suddenly falling ill. His death has been attributed, alternatively, to either illness or poisoning. Palestinians have repeatedly claimed he could have been poisoned by Israelis, while Tel Aviv has vehemently denied any involvement in his death.Hmmmm......'Polonium Experts'...Next they'll say Vodka could have cured him......На здоровье.Read the full story here.

Swiss lab to analyze Arafat’s remains for poisoning: hospital.

Swiss lab to analyze Arafat’s remains for poisoning: hospital.(AA).A Swiss radiology lab said Friday it has received the go-ahead from the widow of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to test his remains for poisoning by polonium, a highly radioactive element. “We are waiting for a formal, written letter from the lawyer before travelling to Ramallah” to carry out the probe, a spokesman for the lab at the Lausanne University Hospital Centre, Darcy Christen, told AFP. “Time is of the essence, you could say it’s a question of weeks, not months, because the traceability of polonium diminishes by half every 138 days,” Christen said, noting that this has occurred 20 times since Arafat died aged 75 on November 11, 2004. The Palestinian Authority also approved the probe, which was requested by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas after a media investigation found elevated levels of polonium on some of Arafat’s belongings, including clothing he wore before he died at a military hospital outside Paris. French doctors had offered no explanation for Arafat’s death, and many Palestinians believe he was poisoned by Israel, which denies the allegations. The Palestinian committee probing Arafat’s death was “preparing to counter any possible Israeli intervention” which would hinder the exhumation, investigator Tawfiq Tirawi said early this month. Arafat’s widow Suha Arafat and their daughter lodged a complaint for murder against persons unknown in France on July 31 over the radioactive poisoning claims. Their lawyer in Geneva, Marc Bonnant, told Swiss television on Thursday that she “wanted this investigation ... she’s the one pushing for it, and as a result we will go to Ramallah,” the de facto capital of the occupied West Bank. Polonium is a highly toxic radioactive substance that is rarely found outside military and scientific circles. It was used to kill Russian former spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after drinking tea laced with the substance in London. The Swiss team will first carry out a fact-finding mission during which they will meet with representatives of the Palestinian Authority, inspect Arafat’s mausoleum and assess technological and scientific capabilities on the ground, Christen said. If they deem the testing to be viable, they will carry out a second mission to take samples from the body.Read the full story here.

Yasir Arafat Is Still Dead and We Know Who Really Did Him In.

Yasir Arafat Is Still Dead and We Know Who Really Did Him In.(RR).By Barry Rubin.Yasir Arafat is still dead. True, he was once alive. I sat across from him in his Gaza office, for example. And he even had a copy of my history of the PLO on his bookshelf so he must have been of sound mind at the time. It’s not my fault. I told him to start jogging and cut down on sweets. But he didn’t listen. On November 4, 2004, he died, a fate he previously delivered to thousands of far more innocent people.
The effort now by various Palestinian factions to imply Israel killed him is the funniest thing in the Middle East since the U.S. director of national intelligence’s congressional briefing when he said the Muslim Brotherhood was a secular democratic organization. What’s dismaying is how much play Western media are giving this charge as if it should be taken seriously. When the West behaves in this way it signals at the least a dangerously naive credulousness and at worst a profound anti-Jewish and anti-Israel complex. The New York Times and Washington Post take this nonsense seriously.
But there’s something else in this story, something very chilling indeed. Revolutionary Islamists especially, but many Muslims otherwise, believe that Jews tried to murder Muhammad, the founder of Islam, and even if they failed that the poison shortened his life. The accusation that Jews are the murderer of prophets — with Muslims throwing in the founder of Christianity also — is a phrase that derives from this story. It is frequently heard from Hamas and others.
This is a blood libel, an alleged crime that then leads to the view that Jews are absolutely evil and should be wiped out. In short, it is a rationale for genocide. When Iran, Hamas, Hizballah, and the Muslim Brotherhood say that Israel should be wiped off the map and Jews generally should be murdered, that incitement is the inevitable consequence of this line of thinking.
That Western observers are unaware of all of this history — repeated daily in inciteful sermons found in Middle East mosques — is quite evident. Such a lack of knowledge leads them to believe that the conflicts they say are easily resolvable, quickly settled by more Israeli concessions or still continuing because of Israeli actions when the causes are much deeper and the solutions far more remote. Western societies today are obsessed with searching everywhere for racism and hate speech. Well, the idea that the Jews murdered Arafat (rather than that Arafat spent most of his career murdering Jews) falls into that category.
As for the specific claims in the Arafat case, they are easily disposed of:
First of all, anyone who saw Arafat during the last year of his life knew he was seriously ill and steadily worsening. His lips trembled, he looked disoriented, and he wasn’t as articulate as usual. Even on television you couldn’t possibly miss his distress. Parkinson’s disease was a likely diagnosis though Crohn’s disease was said to be another probable medical problem for the dictator.
His doctors obviously knew that he was in bad shape. But, and this is what’s most important, they didn’t do anything about it. The prospect of Arafat’s death was so traumatic for the movement — which had known no other leader during 43 years for Fatah, 36 years for the PLO, and its entire ten year life for the Palestinian Authority. By not taking serious action and giving him better treatment, the key to the mystery is this: His own doctors and movement killed Arafat. So if Israel killed Arafat, then his own doctors and the entire PLO, Fatah, and PA leadership were in on the conspiracy. Indeed, Arafat himself, by not more actively seeking medical help or speaking about his problems, was also in on the conspiracy. This is unlikely.Of course, Arafat was a weird person and in our biography, Arafat: A Political Biography, Judith Colp Rubin and I explain his psychology and personality. One of my favorite Palestinian jokes about Arafat recounts that he is patting the head of a little girl and asks her, “Whose daughter are you?”
She answers, “Yours.” Arafat was considered by his countrymen to be so cold that he didn’t recognize his own begotten daughter. The story is almost plausible.
But I repeat: there is no reason to think Arafat was a homosexual or died of AIDS or poisoning. He was overweight, ate an unhealthy diet, worked long hours, didn’t take care of himself (he believed eating honey would keep him healthy), and had very bad doctors despite their local reputations.
So we know who killed Arafat: his doctors, entourage, movement, and of course his own body. Yet when I go to Yahoo, what do I see but Arafat’s “mysterious” death as the lead story in the entire world, as if any accusation made against Israel must be true.
Note: Here’s a history of the Israel-killed-Arafat tale in Palestinian Media Watch. For more analysis of why the claims are absurd see here and here. Note: Here’s a history of the Israel-killed-Arafat tale in Palestinian Media Watch. For more analysis of why the claims are absurd see here and here. Here’s some more information about the Israeli decision to let Arafat go to Paris. One interesting point is that it implies the French doctors took some action which might have been correct but could also imply that they are at fault for Arafat’s turn for the worse, giving them a motive for not revealing details of his treatment.Hmmmm......The main question is WHY NOW?What are they planning in the very near future, lets say after the reelection of Obama?Read the full story here.