http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/27/arafat.health/index.html

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was in critical condition late Wednesday, after his health deteriorated through the course of the day, Palestinian officials said. "He is in critical condition, but he's conscious," Hassan Abu-Libdeh, the cabinet secretary for the Palestinian Authority, told CNN. "During the last six hours, he has relapsed."
My heart weeps :(

But I hope he hangs on, morphin drip and all, because I would hate for him to die in any sort of agonizing pain or anything.

Sometimes time can do the job of a 1000 assassins.

Sadly i wonder what kind of caos will follow his death?

i do profess alot of ignorance concerning the palestinian authority but if there is no clear cut successor i can see the "shit hitting the fan" in that portion of the world.
And that's the last thing the world need's in the middle east right now.

Would be kinda classy if the Israelis accidently bombed the power plant thats supplies power to the hospital

Even in Palestine I would think they have generators, at least for Arafat, that is.

My hunch is that upon his death there will be a much more concentrated effort at negotiations by those who step up, as well as an serious attempt to rein in the Hamas people.

It has been said by many that as long as the "old school" leaders were still in place there could be no progress toward peace, but once the next generation was allowed to step in a new dialog would be possible.

The question now will face Israel whether Sharon can shake off the dust of history, or if it will also take a next generation Israeli leader as well.

But, but, but, he won a Nobel Peace Prize didn't he? :D

I predict that if Arafat dies there will be suicide bombers that attack Isrealies somewhere in Israel..... hmmm, nm.

When Arafat dies there will be peace in Israel. Hamas and the other terrorists will be branded what they have always been criminals. Sharon has already pushed ahead an imitative to remove Israelis from the Gaza Strip. This is probably cost him his re-election but he did it. Maybe he sees the writing on the wall.

People on both sides want peace.. period.. Not at any cost.. they just want peace and a livable conclusion.



I would love to beleive the above statatment but I am a realist.

Since Arrafat has not named a successor (afraid that he would get overthrown) and since there is no clear push for control at this time, there will be a period of time when there is no clear leadership of the PLO. This has a number of possible outcomes.

1. A leader or group of leaders will slowly emerge as Arrafat's death gets closer. After all, he might get better and nobody wants to be standing there calling himself/herself the leader of the PLO if Arrafat walks out of the hospital. If this happens, it's a roll of the dice as to how it will affect things. If the "old guard" are still in power, then it's very likely that things will not only continue, but likely escalate.

2. If Arrafat dies before things can come full circle, there will be a leadership vacuum and this would pave the way for a fight for control. If this happens, it's very possible that the PLO could dissolve. A house divided against itself can not stand. If they are busy fighting amongst themselves, they might be too busy to jack with the rest of the world. However, if this happens, then we could be looking at [put a number in here] splinter groups forming and spouting their own flavor of propaganda. More suicide bombers, more death, more disruption in the world.

3. It could suddenly be discovered that he was poisoned by an Israeli operative and open war breaks out and the feces impacts the oscillating rotator at a high rate of speed and the dispersion area is massive.

What ever happens, it will be very interesting over there for quite a while yet to come.

I can't believe you guys are so concerned about Arafat when poor Castro smashed his knee up and no-one even sent a "Get Well" soon card.....

ACK ! Bise, when did that happen??? I shoulda called FTD and sent some flowers.

<shrug>

Oh well, he didn't invite me to Christmas dinner last year anyway.... so nevermind.

Extremists may try to take control, but whoever gets to plunder Arafat's bank account will be the real winner. The closer moderates come to reaching a workable accord with Israel, the more pressure the extremists will apply to disrupt the process. Ironically, if peace does result, it'll probably be attributed as "Arafat's legacy."