Yasir Arafat

Yasir Arafat's death has presented Palestinians, Israelis and the Bush administration with an invaluable chance to revive the peace process. The maddening Palestinian leader will be remembered by history as a man who created an opportunity for his people, then squandered it. In 2000, Israel and the Palestinians, aided by President Clinton, came so close to a deal that would have given Palestinians a viable state. But Arafat opted for a strategy of talk and fight, riding the violence of a second Palestinian uprising and failing to halt terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

In the aftermath of the bombs that blew up in the Mahane Yehuda open-air market yesterday in Jerusalem, the Palestine Broadcasting Corp. (PBC), the official Palestine Authority radio network, reported a "military operation," even though the bombs had killed 15 and wounded 150 shoppers and shopkeepers - Jews and Arabs, old and young alike - in the one place you are bound to find every kind of person in Jerusalem. On each newscast that followed the attack, PBC radio repeated the theme: An "operation" had been carried out, not a terror attack.

In 1974, when Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat stood on the United Nations podium in New York, wearing an empty gun holster, he referred to Israel as "the Zionist entity. " And he called for a "democratic, secular state in Palestine," a euphemism for the dissolution of the Jewish state. Yesterday, at Geneva, Mr. Arafat admitted that such a state was an unrealistic dream. He spoke of a comprehensive peace settlement, to be negotiated between the parties concerned, including Israel and the PLO's newly declared but landless "state of Palestine.

Not a day goes by that I do not look at some newspaper or another and pronounce the editors jerks. A story that God intended to be on the front page and that, as it happens, interests me, is idiotically buried back in the paper. Helpless, I rail at such stupidity but, somehow, get on with my life. Yasir Arafat, though, has a better idea: He has the editor jailed. This is precisely what happened to Maher Alami, an editor at the East Jerusalem newspaper, Al Quds. He was detained for six days after he refused to publish a certain story about Arafat on Page 1, as demanded, and instead placed the item on Page 8 where, arguably, it was still overplayed.

One conclusion seems beyond dispute as the gulf war ends: The Palestinians would face a less grim future if they had a different leader. Whether they can get a new leader is one question. Whether they even want one is another. The answers could go a long way toward determining whether postwar diplomacy will be able to generate movement for peaceful settlements of the Israeli-Arab conflict and issues surrounding the Palestinians. Diplomats and analysts say there is little chance of such movement as long as Yasir Arafat, whose Palestine Liberation Organization fervently supported Saddam Hussein, remains the leader and embodiment of the Palestinian cause.

Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, 75, a symbol of statehood to his people and of Satan to many Israelis, died today at a hospital outside Paris, Palestinian officials said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death. Mr. Arafat had been in ill health for several weeks and was undergoing treatment for an undisclosed blood disorder at the Percy military hospital when his condition suddenly worsened Monday. He spent his final days in a coma. A small man with perpetually unshaven cheeks, a checked Palestinian headdress, a khaki uniform, and a pistol on his belt, Mr. Arafat was known to his people as Abu Ammar, an Arabic term of respect and affection that roughly translates to Father of Us All. His life - and death - in many ways symbolized the modern Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared "war on terror" yesterday as warplanes and helicopters blasted Palestinian targets in the West Bank and near Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat's headquarters in Gaza City. The retaliatory strikes, which Sharon suggested were just the beginning, followed a bloody weekend of attacks on Israeli civilians that killed 26 people - many of them teenagers and young children - and wounded about 230. "This will not be an easy war," Sharon said in a television address to the nation last night, echoing President Bush's declaration of war against international terrorism after the Sept.

Palestine Liberation Organization boss Yasir Arafat survived a plane crash in a sandstorm in the Libyan desert. The guy must be mellowing. The Yasir Arafat we used to love to hate would have blamed the sandstorm on Israel. OUCH! In those few years when they were a winning team (remember?), they were called the Fighting Phillies. In other years, running truer to form, they were dubbed by sportswriters the Futile Phillies - and even less complimentary alliterative appellations.

The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa drew a throng of dignitaries to Pretoria last week, including some who don't ordinarily rub shoulders. Hillary Rodham Clinton marveled at encountering first Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat, and then Israel's president, Ezer Weizman. Across the room was Cuban President Fidel Castro - though Clinton made a point of noting she didn't speak with him.

The overwhelming majority of Israelis want peace, real peace, not the "peace process" to which Yasir Arafat clings so fondly. Tuesday's election results have broadcast a resounding no to the Oslo peace process.. . . We should be thankful to Ehud Barak for having demonstrated to the left, in Israel and to the entire world, that no limit of Israeli concessions can satisfy the PLO. Now the new government will have to convince the Palestinian leadership that the peace process has moved back to the starting point.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The remains of former Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat will be exhumed Tuesday as part of a renewed investigation into his death, a Palestinian investigator said Saturday. Arafat died in November 2004 in a French military hospital, a month after suddenly falling ill. Palestinian officials claim he was poisoned by Israel, but have not presented evidence. Israel has denied such allegations. Earlier this year, the detection of a lethal radioactive substance in biological traces on Arafat's clothing sparked a new investigation.

JERUSALEM - A former Israeli official on Wednesday denied suspicions that Israel poisoned Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, as France prepared to begin an investigation into his possible murder following a Swiss lab's claim that it found traces of a deadly substance on his belongings. Dov Weisglass, chief of staff to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the time of Arafat's death in 2004 and a key participant in deliberations surrounding Arafat's worsening health, said Israel had no reason to physically harm the Palestinian leader.

PARIS - French prosecutors opened a murder inquiry Tuesday into the death of Yasir Arafat, his widow's lawyer said, after she and a TV investigation raised new questions about whether the Palestinian leader was poisoned. Many in the Arab world have long suspected Arafat was poisoned, and a Swiss lab's recent finding of elevated levels of polonium-210 - a rare and highly lethal radioactive substance - on Arafat's clothing has fed those claims. However, the Institute of Radiation Physics said that its findings were inconclusive and that only exhuming Arafat's remains might bring clarity.

PARIS - Yasir Arafat's widow on Tuesday formally asked for a French investigation into his death, bringing a complaint of assassination weeks after raising new suspicions that the former Palestinian leader was poisoned before his 2004 death at a French military hospital. Last month, Palestinian authorities gave final approval for Arafat's body to be exhumed, though there are signs that officials are uninterested in an autopsy. An Arafat nephew, who as a close relative has veto rights over digging up the remains, said Tuesday there was no need for an exhumation.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Medical files released for the first time Thursday portray Yasir Arafat as a robust 75-year-old whose sudden health crisis, a month before his mysterious 2004 death, was initially blamed on viral gastroenteritis. The treatment notes by Arafat's Arab doctors who cared for him at his West Bank compound before he was airlifted to France are part of a renewed push to find out what killed the Palestinian leader. For years, little was heard about official Palestinian efforts to uncover Arafat's cause of death.

JERUSALEM - The discovery of traces of a radioactive agent on clothing reportedly worn by Yasir Arafat in his final days reignited a cauldron of conspiracy theories Wednesday about the mysterious death of the longtime Palestinian leader. Arafat's widow, who ordered the tests by a Swiss lab, called for her husband's body to be exhumed, and Arafat's successor gave tentative approval for an autopsy. But experts warned that even after the detection of polonium-210, getting answers on the cause of death can be tough.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The late Yasir Arafat's powerful moneyman is the target of the highest-profile Palestinian corruption probe to date, facing allegations he siphoned off millions of dollars in public funds, the chief investigator said Wednesday. Anticorruption campaigners lauded the case against the shadowy former aide, Mohammed Rashid, as a sign of the maturing of the Palestinian political system, although the probe also appeared to be tinged with political intrigue. Rashid, who has in the past denied wrongdoing, made veiled threats on a website to disclose purported secrets about the rise to power of Arafat's successor, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Dear Barack Obama: Congratulations - you may already be a winner! Our Nobel Clearing House Peace Prize Patrol may be on its way to your house to invite you to beautiful Oslo, Norway, where you will receive our top award (suitable for framing) and a check for $1,000,000! Yes, take $1,000,000, with our compliments, to use any way you want! Take that dream vacation, pay for a relative's heart transplant, or just blow it all in Vegas! We know what you're thinking: "This can't be for real.

Any president who tries to foster peace between Israelis and Arabs must be part diplomat and part shrink. President Obama seems to understand this. He came to office determined to restore trust between America and the world's Muslims. In his famous Cairo speech, he called for both sides to make a "sustained effort to listen to each other. " He also pledged to pursue peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But as top U.S. officials trek to Israel this week, Israelis are sending the message that they feel jilted.

"Apart from the time restriction [a truce that lapses after 10 years] and the refusal to accept Israel's existence, Mr. Meshal's terms approximate the Arab League peace plan. ... " - The New York Times, explaining Hamas' peace plan "Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" - Tom Lehrer, satirist The Times conducted a five-hour interview with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal at his Damascus headquarters. Mirabile dictu, Hamas is offering a peace plan with a two-state solution.