Doesn't sound like poisoning to us
Our pal Roger Simon has characterized the madcap scramble for Yasser Arafat's medical records as a "black comedy" -- not exactly the appropriate coda to the life of a man driven by insatiable bloodlust. But the premeditated lies imputing responsibility for his death to poisoning by Israelis -- perfect!
Combine Jewish blood libel with the Arab will to believe hidden hand conspiracies and you have the makings of a worthy Arafat legacy. As Shakespeare's Falstaff was not only witty in himself but the cause of wit in others, so with Arafat -- if you change "witty" and "wit" to, well, "murderous" and "murder."
Jillian Becker is the author and long-time expert on the PLO. Her 1984 book PLO: The rise and fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization was a pioneering investigation into Arafat's institutional base. This morning she has kindly emailed us this memorandum:
As soon as Arafat was declared dead – or even before – rumours of his being done to death one way or another by Israel were put in circulation by Arab sources. One story we were told on British television was that Israel had kept Arafat for years (two years, I think, was the number given) in a small, dark, cold, bare room without any windows, and that this cruel confinement was the cause of his health deteriorating.UPDATE: The estimable Michael Ledeen writes:A Protestant clergyman whom I personally know had visited Arafat, as one of a Church group from Britain, at the Palestinian leader’s Ramallah headquarters just one month before his death was announced in Paris. When the announcement was made, I telephoned my Reverend friend and asked him to describe to me the building and the room in which he met Arafat. In sum, this is what he said:
The approach to the building was full of abandoned, wrecked cars and other rubble. The building itself, however, was a solid concrete structure of staircases, landings and corridors with many rooms leading off them. Militiamen stood about, but were not visibly armed. The churchmen were shown into a large room, about 30-40 feet long, and about 15-20 feet wide. It was well lit by strip-lighting. There were windows, but they were covered on the inside. The visitors were seated with another group of churchmen (from the US) at a large table which took up most of the centre of the room. Arafat - "a very small man" - came in accompanied by militiamen and others, and seated himself at the head of the table. Three of his ministers, introduced as such, sat down with him. He talked about how the Israelis had deliberately shot at statues of the Virgin Mary in Palestinian areas. He then had his photograph taken shaking hands with each of his guests, to whom the snaps were presented as mementos of the meeting. Throughout, Arafat smiled a lot, was very affable, and spoke with forceful energy. He said he had been brought to them "from his sickbed" but did not say what was ailing him.
Jillian Becker died a long time ago...so maybe the email you received was from her doppelganger...but i am certain she died. i was crazy about her...know her widower well...etc.We apologize for the error. I hope it's not just to cushion the blow that Dr. Ledeen adds: "Love your blog."
UPDATE 2: Reader Rex Pilger seems to have sighted Jillian Becker in the Scotsman this past January: "This is not my Sylvia." Pilger asks: "Is Jillian Becker still alive? What is a long time ago?" Or could it be her doppelganger?
THE LAST WORD: We have no idea what caused the confusion--maybe there are two people with the same name who have written about the PLO--but the definitive word seems to come from C. E. Geber, who says his mother, Jillian Becker, is very much alive. We'll leave it at that.
