Bring out your dead!
Posted on 11/04/2004 3:21:09 AM PST by PurVirgo
November 4, 2004 05:39 AM EST
PARIS - Yasser Arafat, fighting for his life in a French hospital, has lost consciousness repeatedly in recent hours, Palestinian officials said Thursday.
The officials said they could not immediately confirm reports that the 75-year-old Palestinian leader had lapsed into a coma.
Arafat's condition deteriorated sharply on Wednesday and he was rushed into intensive care at the French military hospital where he has been undergoing treatment for a week.
Earlier, Israeli media, citing Israeli intelligence and Palestinian officials, said Arafat suffered organ failure. The Maariv daily said Arafat's condition was "very critical."
However, Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said reports that Arafat's organs had failed were "unfounded." He described Arafat's condition as "stable and serious" and said that the most recent blood tests and CT scans conducted Wednesday night and Thursday morning were encouraging.
Other Palestinian officials said Arafat's health had deteriorated, but would not provide details. French hospital and military officials declined to comment.
Doctors still don't know the cause of the blood and digestive disorders uncovered over the past few days, the sources said, adding that Arafat was undergoing additional tests.
Israel Radio reported that Mahmoud Abbas, No. 2 in the hierarchy of Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization and his first prime minister, was on his way Thursday morning to Paris to see him.
Arafat's top aides have denied there was any setback and accused Israel of spreading rumors. The report first aired on Israel's Channel Two television.
"These unfounded reports are not coming from French medical teams, these are leaks from the Israeli side," said Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian security chief.
"Leaking such rumors will only complicate things and also complicate the situation within the Palestinian public," he told reporters in Paris.
Arafat, who has been ill for three weeks, was flown to the French military hospital on Friday after passing out briefly at his west Bank headquarters.
He was initially described as having a bad flu, with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
Palestinian officials insist publicly leukemia and other forms of cancer, as well as any type of poisoning, have been ruled out.
Undoubtedly conscious of the anxiety back home at the thought of a future without Arafat - who has led the Palestinians for 40 years with no obvious successor - they have previously described his condition as improving and said more tests were being done.
Khaled Salem, Arafat's top aide, said early Thursday that the medical analysis was "deepening a little bit" but he remained confident Arafat would recover.
"There are no setbacks," he told reporters outside the hospital. "It's no secret he's ill, that's why he's in France, but there is no threat, there is no danger, no serious degradation."
However, top Israeli security officials were meeting Thursday to study the repercussions in the Middle East should Arafat die, said Israeli officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
Attending the meeting are Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Army Chief Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, the officials said.
Speculation in Israel has ranged from a viral infection to stomach cancer.
His brother, Fathi Arafat, has had stomach cancer for four years and is currently hospitalized in Cairo, Egypt, with an advanced stage, according to doctors there.
On Wednesday, Leila Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France who has been serving as Arafat's official spokeswoman in Paris, said Arafat felt well enough to ask about the U.S. presidential election. An aide later issued a statement in Arafat's name congratulating President Bush on his re-election.
... and Clinton will beat tracks to the funeral to mourn the 'statesman' Arafat - and to preen for the cameras.
Well, I thought at first this was a ploy to get out of a mess, frankly. But now, I think he's on his deathbed.
It cannot come too soon for me.
If only it were due to something worthy like being beat by a NY phone book...
I'm no doctor, but if this is accurate, I think it is the end for the old monster.
His days are numbered ...
Here's hoping.
Too Bad. I hope he lingers in pain.
Allah may, at long last, be calling this murderous tyrant home to his awaiting virgins. I hate to be cruel, but his passing would be no loss to the world.
IMO, once Arafathead has gone to his "reward" (think someplace VERY warm - and I'm not talking Florida), the PLO and the PA and every other thing associated with this collection of vermin and murderers that no other country in the ME wants will simply fall apart.
There doesn't appear to be a strong leader waiting to assume Arafathead's place that can keep the vermin from imploding and succumbing to infighting. Hopefully, within five to ten years after he is gone, the PA will be a distant memory and its proponents will be scattered to the four winds.
Arafat has been a bad, bad boy... And he's trying to stay away from Allah's justice.
Dying on a sickbed does not a martyr make.
To make him a martyr, it will be poison that does him in... at least that'll be the final story as decided by his muslim supporters. And somehow the Jews will have done it.
I wonder who has the passwords for his Swiss bank accounts, or make that French accounts.
Your reward awaits!
< Austin Powers> WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!? < /Austin Powers>
For all we know, they might have left him in his hotel room and gone on vacation for a month,
Just die already
What do the wives think of their husbands dying in jihaad to go see 70 virgins? I'd personally scream an "ALAALLALALALAALALA".
Arafat unconscious for several hours
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Arafat unconscious for several hours France :Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been "unconscious for the past several hours", a source close to the Palestinian delegation with Arafat in France told AFP.
The source refused to say Arafat had fallen into a coma, insisting that the 75-year-old Palestinian leader -- in hospital in France for nearly a week for treatment of a mysterious illness -- was "unconscious".
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is being treated in the intensive care unit at a Paris hospital after a deterioration in his condition, has lost consciousness three times over the last 24 hours, sources close to his delegation said Thursday.
"President Arafat lost consciousness three times during Wednesday and overnight Wednesday to Thursday. The first two times he recovered consciousness but the third time we do not know at this moment," the source said.
The ailing 75 year-old was transferred Wednesday morning to the intensive care unit at the Percy military hospital in the Paris suburb of Clamart, five days after arriving in France for treatment for an unknown blood disorder.
Palestinian officials who came to France with Arafat insisted Wednesday that his condition was stable and his life was not in danger, but in Jerusalem the Israeli government said it had information of a "sudden deterioration" in his health.
The independent Maariv newspaper quoted unnamed Israeli defence ministry officials as saying Arafat's health was "serious, even very serious."
The President of the Palestinian Authority is known to be suffering from a deficiency of blood platelets -- which are needed for clotting -- but doctors are uncertain over what is causing the condition. French doctors have ruled out cancer and leukaemia as well as poisoning.
No time limit has been set for Arafat's stay in France, and officials earlier said it could be several weeks.
Arafat was well enough on Wednesday to welcome US President George W. Bush's re-election, saying he hoped it would help jumpstart the Middle East peace process, one of his aides told AFP.
"President Arafat welcomed Bush's victory and voiced the hope that his new mandate and the confidence placed in him by the American people will give new momentum to the Middle East peace process," said Mohammed Rashid.
The head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) political office, Faruq Qaddumi, normally based in Tunis, arrived in Paris Wednesday to follow the situation, sources in his delegation said.
Before leaving for Paris, Qaddumi said Arafat would convalesce in Tunisia after his medical treatment in France.
Qaddumi said that Arafat's condition was stable but added that he still needed medical treatment and tests to find out what caused his illness.
Arafat and his PLO headquarters spent 12 years in Tunis from 1982 to 1994. His wife Soha and daughter Zahwa have divided their time between Paris and Tunis since the current Palestinian intifada began in September 2000.
Arafat's poor health and his departure from his battered West Bank headquarters have sparked intense speculation about his eventual successor, but officials insist there is no power vacuum.
In Arafat's absence, Ahmed Qorei -- who has the rank of prime minister -- has taken over as acting head of the Palestinian Authority, while former premier Mahmud Abbas is temporarily heading the Palestine Liberation Organization and Arafat's dominant Fatah faction.
Abbas had been expected to visit Arafat Thursday, but officials in Ramallah said his trip to France has been cancelled.
In Jerusalem on Wednesday Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said the country must prepare for the death of the veteran Palestinian leader.
"We are monitoring this case with the utmost attention. Our aim is to be ready for the day after Arafat, but this is not something we can fix in advance, it is still too early to bury him," Shalom told public radio.
"If he dies, we must be as organised as possible. There is no doubt that his condition is very serious. We have said since the beginning that he was suffering from a very serious infection or from cancer," he added.
Asked whether Israel would allow Arafat to be buried in his childhood home of Jerusalem, Shalom replied: "Yasser Arafat's family is originally from the Gaza Strip where his father, sister and one of his brothers are buried".
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