Did Arafat have AIDS?

[Cleon]

1. Arafat was not a Palestinian. He was 100% Egyptian.

Christ. This myth is still circulating?

Arafat was Palestinian. He was born in Cairo to fairly Palestinian parents who travelled to Egypt often; he spent his youth going back-and-forth between Cairo and Jerusalem.

If it makes him "100% Egyptian" because he was born in Cairo, I know a heck of a lot of "military brats" born in Germany who need their US citizenship revoked.

2. Arafat was not his real name. It was Rahman al-Qudwa

Erm--that's not it, either. His full name was uhammad Abd al-Rahman ar-Rauf al-Qudwah al-Husayni. Long names that are shortened to new ones aren't particularly uncommon in that neck of the woods. (Or in others--you should see Francisco Franco's full name.)

3. Arafat was not a devout moslem; he has maried a christian.

The fact that he married a Christian (who converted, btw) says nothing about his devoutness. Though I tend to think, like many leaders in that part of the world, he was more of an "on-paper" Muslim.

20% of Palestinians are Christian. It's not like it's an unheard-of religion over there.

4. Arafat was not a devout moslem: he has stolen billions from his own people.

Despite what Mycroft thinks, I'm not a big Arafat fan. Never have been. But so far, the only evidence I've seen of this has been that Arafat's rich and nobody's been able to follow the money that goes to the PA. (Though I believe his personal wealth has usually been estimated in the hundreds of millions, not billions.) No investigation alleging corruption has ever been conclusive.

Of course, given that Arafat was born into a rich family, ran a fairly successful engineering firm in Kuwait (his background is in civil engineering), the fact that he's loaded isn't particularly surprising.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's corruption in the PA. Dead certain of it, in fact. But I haven't seen any conclusive evidence for the oft-repeated idea that he personally "stole billions of dollars."

And if General Pacepa's book is true, Arafat is:

5. A compromised (due to his alleged homosexual pedophilia) and controlled agent of the former USSR, a position for which he was recruited by the late A.G. Nasser, President of Egypt.

Does the fact that there's zero corraborating evidence for this mean anything to you? No records in the Kremlin. No Palestinian witnesses. Nada. Given that Arafat's been surrounded with people for most of his adult life, you'd think somebody would have said something.

As to his cause of death:

6. Nobody, not his wife, doctors, relatives or anyone is willing to state what he died from or what his clinical laboratory results were. This has lead to the speculation by the NY Post that there is one and only one disease which family and supporters of a deceased would like to suppress and that is AIDS. If he died from anything else there would, they reason, be absolutely no purpose in hiding that. And if he were truly poisoned, then it would be front page headlines by now.

If he was poisoned, it would have been released by now; the French would have picked up on it. Same deal if it was AIDS.

There is exactly the same amount of evidence for both the "AIDS" and "poison" theories. Chances are, neither are true.

 

[zenith-nadir]

No investigation alleging corruption has ever been conclusive.

Arafat's Billions - Nov. 9, 2003

Jim Prince and a team of American accountants - hired by Arafat's own finance ministry - are combing through Arafat's books. Given what they've already uncovered, Arafat may be rethinking the decision.

So far, Prince's team has determined that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion...

The stockpile went well beyond the portfolio. Arafat accumulated another $1 billion with the help of -- of all people -- the Israelis. Under the Oslo Accords, it was agreed that Israel would collect sales taxes on goods purchased by Palestinians and transfer those funds to the Palestinian treasury.

There's yet another stash of money Arafat might be asked about: the funds he collected when he was chairman of the PLO in exile. The PLO's former treasurer told us he saw Saddam Hussein hand Arafat a $50 million check for supporting him during the first Gulf War. And there were other large gifts from the KGB and the Saudis.

Of course, given that Arafat was born into a rich family, ran a fairly successful engineering firm in Kuwait (his background is in civil engineering), the fact that he's loaded isn't particularly surprising.

 

[a_unique_person]

Without a doubt. His living in his office, drinking crappy water and spoiled food doubtlessly contributed to his demise. This is why I think hepatitis did him in. Hep-A is a typical water borne virus but is not usually the cause of chronic hepatitis; Hep B is only rarely involved and Hep C is the most common cause of chronic hepatitis. I have seen such patients go on for sometime almost without symptoms only to rapidly go downhill and die after a few weeks. Arafat's case reminds me of such cases.

But quite frankly it should also be obvious that rumors of being poisoned by Israel are an attempt to martyr him and set the stage for continuing suicide bombing and terrorist attacks as well. As I tried to say above, him having died of AIDS, of being a homosexual pedophile are just as or no more improbable then some Israeli secret agent sneaking in to his office and poisoning his food.

Poor water quality is one of the majory health problems the Palestinians face.

 

[epepke]

That is correct. People with AIDS develop unusually rare diseases such as Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and some not so rare diseases such as fungal pathogens, hepatitis and tuberculosis. These secondary diseases and others are what kills people, AIDS or not.

Just as a point, though, before AIDS, Kaposi's sarcoma was found almost exclusively in men of middle Eastern or African origin. Another disease relatively more common in Mideasterners is favism, a hemolytic anemia triggered by eating fava beans (ironic, because that's where people eat fava beans the most).

Favism appears to have originated as an anti-malarial adaptation, by the way.

 

[BPSCG]

I understand that as of this morning (November 15, 2004) Arafat's condition is stable.

Hillaire Belloc's "Epitaph on the Politician"

Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.

 

[Ladewig]

Since this book is not available online (but can still be purchased if perusal of book websites is any indication), it is necessary to give the URLs for those who have most recently published excerpts which support the thesis of this thread's title:

1. Arafat was not a Palestinian. He was 100% Egyptian.

2. Arafat was not his real name. It was Rahman al-Qudwa

How exactly is changing one's name evidence of the thesis of this thread's title.

No, the question I want to ask is how is changing one's name evidence of fooking anything?!

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Poor water quality is one of the majory health problems the Palestinians face.

Here's an idea - Stop buying guns and bombs, and use the money saved on water purification!!! Another "complex" problem solved by me in 5 seconds! I should be president.

 

[Mycroft]

I understand that as of this morning (November 15, 2004) Arafat's condition is stable.

 

[Cleopatra]

I think, and quite frankly this should be rather obvious, that the rumors of AIDS and pedophilia are an attempt to discredit him in the Muslim world.

Errrr I don't know about the AIDS thing and even if he died of AIDS,so what but about the phaedophilia thing.... Well I have started to believe that it is not just rumors.

 

[Cleopatra]

Christ. This myth is still circulating?

Arafat was Palestinian. He was born in Cairo to fairly Palestinian parents who travelled to Egypt often; he spent his youth going back-and-forth between Cairo and Jerusalem.

I am sorry but if it didn't matter that much why he attempted many times to lie about his place of birth? Why he kept claiming that he was born in Jerusalem although everybody knew that this was a lie.

It did matter and he knew that very well.

He was born a north african and he died as a north african dictator.

 

[Luke T.]

about the phaedophilia thing.... Well I have started to believe that it is not just rumors.

Why?

 

[a_unique_person]

Here's an idea - Stop buying guns and bombs, and use the money saved on water purification!!! Another "complex" problem solved by me in 5 seconds! I should be president.

Denying Water



BACKGROUND


Water is scarce in Palestine, and Israel is employing all means possible to divert the meagre water resources for itself and further punish the Palestinians by denying them the basic essential of life.


l On 15 August 1967 [Israeli Military Order 92] Israel transferred the authority over West Bank and Gaza Strip [WBGS} water resources to Israeli military commander, Palestinians civilians and farmers lost control over their own water.


l On 19 November 1967 [MO 158] Israel forbade the unlicensed construction of new water infrastructure [i.e. wells].


l On 19 Dec 1968 [MO 291] Israel confiscated all Palestinian water resources declaring them Israeli state property.


l In 1982 the Israeli water authority, Mekorot, took over control of all Palestinian water sources. Further, Palestinian wells were destroyed and supplies dried up by widespread digging and pumping from deeper wells for Israeli use.


l In 1995 Palestinians under 'peace treaty' asked for 450 million m3 [mcm] of water annually, however the Palestinians only received 28.6 mcm.


It should be noted that although the pretext for Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is security, the desire of Israel to control water resources is in fact the main reasons why Israel is reluctant to withdraw and end occupation.



WATER CONSUMPTION



75% of the Occupied West Bank & Gaza Strip renewable water resources are used by Israel.


Three million Palestinians are allowed to use 250 million cubic meters per annum while six million Israelis enjoy the use of 2.0 billion cubic meters

http://www.mediareviewnet.com/Denying Water.htm

 

[Mycroft]

http://www.mediareviewnet.com/Denying Water.htm

Interesting site you quote there.

Check out the kind of political cartoons they run:

Then check out their headlined article on Arafat's poisoning:

http://www.mediareviewnet.com/Arafat Slowly fatally poisoned.htm

 

[Cleopatra]

Why?

I have read many thing regarding this issue. My problem is that the first stories appeared in jewish sites of the extreme right that although they have never been questioned I do not find them trustworthy. Although I know that one of the principles of critical thinking is to examine what somebody is claiming and not who is claiming it in this case I chose to ignore those rumors.

Last year though I read a couple of articles from serious palestinian sources that made indirect but specific accusations against the palestinian authority for embracing barbaric muslim superstitions that have to do with the prolongment of life.

According to the old muslim tradition/superstitio that was practiced in large scale by the Turks until the late 19thce men of power would stay always young if they slept with a young boy. The Ottomans apart from harems always had a young boy in their court and "used" it specifically for that. The kid wasn't tortured at all, it was well kept, it got education and its family enjoyed many privileges that's why many parents wished that their boys were chosen to become every Pasha's " little boy".

For those that don't know it, from all the Arabic countries Egypt is considered the most turkisized country( I mean the country that it was very much influence by the Ottomans who destroyed the Arabic civilization for good) to the point that Jordanians, Palestinians and especially the Lebanese have for an insult to call somebody " Egyptian" because it means a turkisized, second class Arab.

Another example. Arabic is a very difficult and diverse language. If you are an Arab who speaks egyptian Arabic there is no way for you to be accepted in the intellectual arabic communities of Europe ( I know about UK for sure) that they speak the lebanese and syrian version of the Arabic.

I take the opportunity to mention all these because of the comment that was made regarding Arafat's origin. Arafat was raised an Egyptian. Period. And if somebody believes that you can turn blood into water ( as we say here-- meaning that somebody cannot escape his cultural background ever) be my guest to show me how you drink it.

So, to return to the question, although I have seen many things regarding Arafat's relationship with boys I found very persuasive the reference to the muslim tradition. Shall we ever know? I doubt it but in those cases one chooses to believe what he/she wants.

In my opinion Arafat has done many worse things when he was allowing his wife to steal the money of the Palestinians, when he kept his people in the refugee camps for decades instead of encouraging them to build a life , when he was executing his comrades because they questioned him and left their bodies unburied for weeks hunging by the trees.

 

[a_unique_person]

Interesting site you quote there.

Check out the kind of political cartoons they run:

Then check out their headlined article on Arafat's poisoning:

http://www.mediareviewnet.com/Arafat Slowly fatally poisoned.htm

I was only referring to water. Any other content is not in any way endorsed, nor has it been viewed by, me. There are many other sites on the water issue, some of which I have reffered to before. There was an independent article on the issue, but it is only available on a pay basis.

If I had all day to compile some information on the topic, I would be happy to do so, as it is, I have a family to care for.

 

[Mycroft]

If I had all day to compile some information on the topic, I would be happy to do so, as it is, I have a family to care for.

So you take a short cut by just throwing out the first thing you find?

 

[a_unique_person]

So you take a short cut by just throwing out the first thing you find?

Second, it appeared to be in line with other stuff I have read. Please feel free to ignore anything else the site may have on it, I have not read any of it and cannot vouch for it.

 

[zenith-nadir]

Second, it appeared to be in line with other stuff I have read. Please feel free to ignore anything else the site may have on it, I have not read any of it and cannot vouch for it.

TRANSLATION: This website passed my internal "Israel is evil" filter and therefore it appeared to be in line with other stuff I have read which passed my internal "Israel is evil" filter.

 

[a_unique_person]

TRANSLATION: This website passed my internal "Israel is evil" filter and therefore it appeared to be in line with other stuff I have read which passed my internal "Israel is evil" filter.

Reality, I was only looking for some basic stats on water, and found them. I did not look at any other information on that site at all.

 

[zenith-nadir]

Reality, I was only looking for some basic stats on water, and found them. I did not look at any other information on that site at all.

Funny you mention that, I was looking for stats on African Americans and found them at the Ku Klux Klan website, I did not look at any other information on that site at all.