Free Republic

Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men. more stories like this Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott. ‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column. ‘‘Popularized by...

LONDON (Reuters) - The British Broadcasting Corporation has upheld a complaint against one of its journalists who said in a radio report she cried when a dying Yasser Arafat was flown from the West Bank in 2004. Barbara Plett made the remark in a dispatch for the "From Our Own Correspondent" program describing how she felt when a helicopter carrying Arafat, who was gravely ill, took off from his compound, according to a BBC Web site. "When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose from his ruined compound, I started to cry," she said in the 30 October, 2004...

An analysis of the confidential medical report on Yasser Arafat's death reveals three main possibilities as to the cause: poisoning, AIDS or an infection.

Israel's ambassador to France has criticized the French government for issuing a death certificate for deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stating his place of birth as Jerusalem. "I cannot understand how the French government agreed to issue a death certificate based on false information," ambassador Nissim Zvili told a press conference in Montpellier, AFP reported. Municipal officials at Clamart, the suburb of Paris where Arafat died on November 11, said they issued the document on the basis of a family record book itself issued by the French foreign ministry in 1996. Arafat was born Mohammed Abdel-Rawf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hussaini, on...

MILITANTS who are convinced Israel poisoned Yasser Arafat have vowed revenge attacks on the Jewish state. Suspicions of poisoning were also widespread at mosques and rallies, despite assurances to the contrary from Mr Arafat's successors, a reflection of the popular trust they lack and the rejection by many Palestinians of a soft line on Israel. Calls for attacks also clouded hopes of a revival in Middle-East peacemaking now Mr Arafat has left the scene. "We will respond to the assassination of the leader and symbol by striking the depth of the Israeli entity," said a statement from a newly named...

It is hard to find words adequate to describe the malevolent 40-year long career of the world’s longest reigning terrorist (it began in January 1965), a man who fouled his nest in Jordan, Lebanon, and then in the West Bank and Gaza, a moral monster who fooled the world into thinking he had reformed (remember that Nobel Peace Prize?). Yet his farcical death-scene provides perhaps the appropriate coda to an unworthy life.The mise-en-scène is as preposterous as what came before, only much funnier. First, there is the wife, Suha, a Greek Orthodox convert to Islam who nonetheless continued to observe...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's departure from the scene would bring about a significant transformation in both the Israeli and Palestinian political scene. The claim that "there is no partner," which has formed the basis of Israeli foreign policy over the past four years and justified the refusal to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, would depart together with him. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan would lose the central justification for its existence - the lack of a Palestinian partner. Only one day after the Knesset approved the disengagement plan and the dramatic schism took place in the Likud...

FOR the first time, Israel published a detailed map of its planned security barrier, which would encircle tens of thousands of Palestinians, cutting them off from the rest of the West Bank, while keeping about 80 per cent of Jewish settlers on the Israeli side of the fence. The fence's snaking path, sloping from flat land up into mountains, cuts deep into the West Bank and will likely enflame already fierce international opposition. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the military also planned a final section of the barrier in the eastern area of the West Bank and would soon present...

Date: Friday, Oct. 17 TOMORROW The JCRC, Grassroots for Israel, AIPAC AJCommittee, and JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) are gathering at 11am (event starts at noon) for our silent vigil for the victims of terrorism so Shaath, his entourage, and the audience will take note of our condemnation of Palestinian terror as they enter the hotel. Meet at the corner of Powell and Sutter (near the hotel) at 11am - 1pm Please bring yarzheit candles, flags (US and Israel) and signs. Suggested themes for your signs: Terror kills peace Peace yes – terror no Israel...

Editorial: Enough The world will not help us; we must help ourselves. We must kill as many of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders as possible, as quickly possible, while minimizing collateral damage, but not letting that damage stop us. And we must kill Yasser Arafat, because the world leaves us no alternative. No one seriously argues with the fact that Arafat was preventing Mahmoud Abbas, the prime minister he appointed, from combating terrorism, to the extent that was willing to do so. Almost no one seriously disputes that Abbas on whom Israel, the US, and Europe had placed all...

For all those of you who think that only war poses risks for innocent people, I would like to tell you of our experiences here in Israel. Nine years ago, we in Israel, encouraged by our own Peace-Nowers, signed a Peace Accord with a known terrorist, pulled our army out, handed him land and then sat around singing songs and painting doves because we were tired of fighting. And this is what happened: he brought in thousands of weapons, taught children to kill and be killed, set up bomb factories, and encouraged religious leaders to preach suicide bombing as a...

July 24, 2003 The Palestinian Prime Minister Is a Welcome Contrast to Yasir ArafatBy ETHAN BRONNER AMALLAH, West BankAnyone who has sought an interview with Yasir Arafat learns the drill — agree with his lieutenants on a range of days, pick a nearby hotel and wait. At some point after midnight, you will be summoned. The old man, dressed in battle fatigues with his headdress folded in the diamond shape of mandatory Palestine, a pistol attached to his hip, will arrive in a hurricane of aides and hangers-on. He will grab your hand for emphasis but ignore many of your...

Don’t Grant Immunity to Palestinian Terrorists Add your name to the group of 1,300 (and climbing) people who have already signed using the Internet! Stand with us by voicing your opposition to freeing known Palestinian terrorists by signing our letter to President Bush today. To register your signature, read the letter to President Bush, and then complete the simple form below. We would like to send at least 100,000 signatures to President Bush, to let him know that American citizens will not remain silent at this critical time in history. Sign our Letter to President George Bush To United...

JERUSALEM - Palestinians could have general elections by October if Israeli withdrawals continue, with Yasser Arafat likely to be the only major candidate for president, officials said yesterday. Arafat's reelection likely would frustrate Washington's moves to sideline him and nurture an alternative Palestinian leadership. It remains unclear what would happen to the post of prime minister, created under intense U.S. pressure to reduce Arafat's role. Israel freed a top Palestinian security officer from jail Thursday and protested - rather than counterattacked - after a ceasefire violation yesterday in the Gaza Strip, sticking to a four-day-old deal to slowly cede...

Make no mistake, Arafat will try to derail this peace process. He has absolutely no incentive to see his prime minister succeed June 9 issue — If nothing else, this week’s Middle East summits will produce a great many photographs of smiling leaders. But to understand how long and hard the road to peace is, consider the photograph that you have not seen. LAST THURSDAY Ariel Sharon met with the new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. It was, everyone agreed, a serious and productive meeting, the kind that politicians love to publicize. Except that there is no...

What on earth does Arafat do all day? Since December 2001, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has been a virtual prisoner in the muqata (district offices) in Ramallah. It is doubtful whether there is any historical precedent for a situation in which someone who heads a political entity is under house arrest and yet continues to manage affairs of state. During his entire period of detention, Arafat has emerged from his office only on rare occasions. After the prolonged siege of Operation Defensive Shield (in March and April 2002), he paid brief visits to Jenin, Nablus and Bethlehem. On two...