Posted on 11/10/2004 2:25:22 AM PST by kattracks
The bizarre story of Suha Arafat, wife of comatose Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, is one more example of how a movement which has combined bloody terrorism with brilliant public relations for so many years proves itself impossible to deal with.
Suddenly, Suha literally holds in her hands the future of the Arab-Israeli conflict and hence of the Middle East and international politics more generally. For only she can pull the plug in the Paris hospital which would end her husband's life and let the Palestinians choose a new leadership. But she's not pulling yet.
She was born in 1964 to a prominent Palestinian Catholic family in Ramallah. Her father was a quiet banker and her mother was Raymonda Tawil, probably the most famous Palestinian woman of the day. Tawil was an outspoken writer who criticized just about everyone but became an effective propagandist for the Palestinian cause after Israel captured the West Bank. On one hand, Tawil posed as victim while she lived a wealthy life style and ran a considerable salon where Israeli officials were welcome. Educated by nuns in Catholic schools, Suha served tea for these gatherings.
Suha met Yasir in 1985 on a trip to Amman when she was a student. He later hired her to do public relations for the PLO in Paris and the two secretly married in July 1990. The Palestinian leader was 53-years-old and one of the world's most notorious bachelors. For years, he had fended off questions about being single by claiming he was married to the revolution.
It is not clear why he decided to get hitched. Certainly, it wasn't love. Perhaps he had decided that at his age he should seem to be settling down. In Arab society, 53-year-old men who have never been married are looked at as strange.
But at the same time, Suha was hardly a safe choice. The marriage was kept secret for 18 months probably because of concern over how Palestinians would respond to Suha's Westernized, elite, and Christian background. Yasir likes to pose as protector of Palestinian Christians and the challenge may have appealed to him. Despite her conversion to Islam, she was still viewed with suspicion.
Presumably, Arafat picked her in large part because she seemed a shy, submissive girl who would provide an official wife without causing much trouble. If so, he could not have been more wrong. The first proof came in April 1992 when Arafat almost died in a plane crash in the Libyan desert. Arafat would later piously claim that two images went through his head: the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem and the faces of his martyred colleagues. He didn't mention Suha. Three others were killed in the crash; Arafat had to wait 15 hours to be rescued.
While awaiting news of her husband's fate, Suha was treated very badly by his associates as she sat for hours alone, in her words, feeling "dumped, abandoned, already like a widow." This embittered her against her husband's colleagues. Being Mrs. Arafat was a difficult task, she told an interviewer. "I married a myth," she said. Yasir's political world was exclusively male. She continually claimed that Yasir never listened to anyone and neglected her.
They spent little time together and after Yasir returned to Gaza in 1994 the marriage already seemed effectively over. Like her husband, she showed little interest in the welfare of her people. Her expensive clothes, dyed blonde hair, and Parisian shopping trips undercut Arafat's spartan image as an incorruptible man of the people and pious Muslim. She went off to live in Paris where their daughter, Zahwa, was born at the American Hospital in the posh Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine on August 27, 1995.
Occasionally, she returned. In November 1999, when First Lady Hilary Clinton visited Ramallah to open a U.S.-funded health program, Suha falsely told her that the Israelis were using poison gas that gave Palestinians cancer. Later, she announced that if she had a son she would want him to be a suicide bomber.
Meanwhile, back in France, Suha was spending large amounts of Western-donated money that was intended to help poor Palestinians. Yasir skimmed off a large share which he passed on to her and she passed on to the Paris clothing designers. When in 2004, the French authorities opened an investigation in which she was accused of laundering millions of dollars, she said it was an Israeli conspiracy against her and her husband in order to conceal their mass murders. She justified the money she was receiving as being used for the cause. According to media reports, this included living in an entire floor of a luxury hotel.
The collapse of Yasir's health has put her in a position of remarkable power. Although she literally didn't see her husband during the last four years of his life, Suha is empowered by French law now as the only one now who can end it. She finally has Arafat's colleagues where she has long wanted them.
In a telephone call to al-Jazira television, Suha screamed that her brain-dead comatose husband was perfectly fine and that Palestinian leaders were conspiring to bury him alive in order to grab power for themselves. No doubt, one of the main issues is their attempt to get from her control over hundreds of million dollars in hidden bank accounts which, given the absence of a will, she would likely inherit.
The point of this story is not to make Suha the villain, as much as she might resemble a Palestinian Marie Antoinette. Actually, she rather exemplifies in her behavior the movement's characteristic corruption, indifference to the people she claims to love, wacky world view, glorification of violence, use of conspiracy theories, endless lies, pleas for sympathy, and propaganda. If you want to know why the PLO refuses to make peace and why the conflict continues long after it could have been peacefully resolved, look no further.
Barry Rubin, an FPRI senior fellow, is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://gloria.idc.ac.il and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://meria.idc.ac.il. His most recent books include The Tragedy of the Middle East (Cambridge, 2002) and (as co-author) Yasir Arafat: A Political Biography (Oxford, 2003) available through : http://gloria:idc.ac.il/publications/books/arafat.html and Hating America: A History available through http://gloria.idc.ac.il/publications/books/hating_america.html
Should be interesting reading for a few days, anyway! I wonder how long they can keep up the ruse?
To be continued in the next episode of "As The Worm Turns..."
No mention of the worms'love for young boys.
Funny how many long term "batchelors" marry their PR's.....
Perhaps, there would be peace if Sharon sent in Golan Cipel to , ahem, "negotiate".
Chairman,is that what they're calling child murdering terrorists now?
She's no different than the rest of the Palestinians....lie, cheat, steal, and get the Europeans on your side and you've got the world by the tail.
"In Arab society, 53-year-old men who have never been married are looked at as strange."
I'll bet Bill Clinton is still trying to get an invite to this funeral.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.