The Palestinians

Interesting...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has died. He was 75 years old.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said Arafat died on Thursday in a military hospital in Paris. They said Arafat was deemed clinically dead, but is still attached to life support systems on the insistence of his wife, Suha...

..The problem is that Arafat is still the only Palestinian official who can pay the bills. And it is unclear who, if anyone, has access to the estimated $2-3 billion in his personal Swiss bank accounts, according to a report in the current edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com. Even his wife is said to be unaware of how to access the funds.

I personally believe Arafat's death is (will be?) a great thing, and I have interpreted the sense of panic among Palestinian officials as a sign that they knew this event could touch off a civil war among the Palestianians.

However, perhaps the panic comes from another source entirely: horror at watching all that money - and all of the bombs it could buy - gathering mold in a Swiss bank account.

Oh, the pity.

If a civil war doesn't break out - a big "if" - maybe the impotence of the Palestinians will actually lead them to genuinely pursue a negotiated peace.

Nahhh.
- posted by total @ 11/06/2004 05:54:00 AM .