Boozer
11-09-2004, 12:51 PM
The Palestinians now seem to think so. Sounds like there's going to be some serious battles as a result too. I don't think the battles are going to between the israeli's and the palestinians however. It's looking more like there's going to be a lot of battling for power. Hopefully this battle over power is going to weaken the already weak palestinians enough to make them crumble.
PARIS (Reuters) - The fate of Yasser Arafat was mired in confusion on Tuesday as Palestinian officials insisted in public he was clinging to life even as aides said privately the veteran leader had died at a Paris hospital.
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, in a strenuous denial, said the Palestinian president, 75, was "very much alive," but at least five senior sources said he had succumbed to the mystery illness that led to his being flown to Paris on Oct. 29.
A top aide said Arafat, who lapsed into a coma last week, had suffered a brain hemorrhage. Palestinian sources said leaders were waiting for a senior Muslim cleric to arrive on Wednesday to give the go-ahead for disconnecting life-support machines.
"He is dead," one Palestinian source said. "He died after bleeding in the brain began last night. His bodyguards started hugging and kissing and telling each other to be strong."
Shaath described Arafat as "very ill," but said his brain, heart and lungs still functioned. A spokesman for French medical services said earlier: "Mr. Arafat is not dead."
The flurry of conflicting reports surfaced during a visit to Paris by a delegation of three senior Palestinian officials, all seen as potential successors to Arafat, to check on the Palestinian leader despite his wife's angry objections.
In four decades leading the Palestinian nationalist cause, Arafat has gone from guerrilla icon to Nobel prize-winning peacemaker to a shunned old leader facing renewed bloodshed with Israel.
Arafat has been in a coma brought on by a still-undisclosed illness, with his dream of a Palestinian state unrealized, a possible succession battle brewing and the threat of chaos in Palestinian territories looming.
He has been widely admired by Palestinians as the father of their struggle for statehood but was reviled by many Israelis as the face of terror.
Both sides have wondered whether his death might serve as the catalyst for first real peace effort in years or plunge the region into deeper crisis.
PARIS (Reuters) - The fate of Yasser Arafat was mired in confusion on Tuesday as Palestinian officials insisted in public he was clinging to life even as aides said privately the veteran leader had died at a Paris hospital.
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, in a strenuous denial, said the Palestinian president, 75, was "very much alive," but at least five senior sources said he had succumbed to the mystery illness that led to his being flown to Paris on Oct. 29.
A top aide said Arafat, who lapsed into a coma last week, had suffered a brain hemorrhage. Palestinian sources said leaders were waiting for a senior Muslim cleric to arrive on Wednesday to give the go-ahead for disconnecting life-support machines.
"He is dead," one Palestinian source said. "He died after bleeding in the brain began last night. His bodyguards started hugging and kissing and telling each other to be strong."
Shaath described Arafat as "very ill," but said his brain, heart and lungs still functioned. A spokesman for French medical services said earlier: "Mr. Arafat is not dead."
The flurry of conflicting reports surfaced during a visit to Paris by a delegation of three senior Palestinian officials, all seen as potential successors to Arafat, to check on the Palestinian leader despite his wife's angry objections.
In four decades leading the Palestinian nationalist cause, Arafat has gone from guerrilla icon to Nobel prize-winning peacemaker to a shunned old leader facing renewed bloodshed with Israel.
Arafat has been in a coma brought on by a still-undisclosed illness, with his dream of a Palestinian state unrealized, a possible succession battle brewing and the threat of chaos in Palestinian territories looming.
He has been widely admired by Palestinians as the father of their struggle for statehood but was reviled by many Israelis as the face of terror.
Both sides have wondered whether his death might serve as the catalyst for first real peace effort in years or plunge the region into deeper crisis.